Philosophical Investigations 200-250

There won't be much from this section, since there was a long and rather boring section within in that I didn't seem to say anything new or interesting about obeying rules. But, other than that, here I go!!!

201. There is a way of grasping a rul which is not an interpretation, but which is exhibited in what we call "obeying the rule" and "going against it" in actual case. Hence there is an inclination to say: every action according to the rule is an interpretation. But we ought to restrict the term "interpretation" to the substitution of one expression of the rule for another.

202. And hence also 'obeying a rule' is a practice. And to think one is obeying a rule is not to obey a rule. Hence it is not possible to obey a rule 'privately': otherwise thinking one was obeying a rule would be the same as obeying it.

203. Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way about, you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about.

206. The common behaviour of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.

216. "A thing is identical with itself." -- There is no finer example of a useless proposition, which yet is connected with a certain play of the imagination. It is as if in imagination we put a thing into its own shape and saw that it fitted.
We might say also: "Every thing fits into itself." Or again: "Every thing fits into its own shape." At the same time we look at a thing and imagine that there was a blank left for it, and that now it fits into it exactly.
Does this spot 'fit' into its white surroundings?--But that is just how it would look if there had at first been a hole in its place and it then fitted into the hole. But when we say "it fits" we are not simply describing this appearance; not simply this situation.
"Every coloured patch fits exactly into its surrounding" is a rather specialized form of the law of identity.

219. When I obey a rule, I do not choose. I obey the rule blindly.

244. The verbal expression of pain replaces crying and does not describe it.

246. It can't be said of me at all (except perhaps as a joke) that I know I am in pain. What is it supposed to mean--except perhaps that I am in pain?