Consider as an example the question
“What is time?” as Saint
Augustine and others have asked
it. At first sight what this question asks for is a
definition, but then immediately the question arises:
“What should we gain by a definition, as it can only
lead us to other undefined terms?” And why
should one be puzzled just by the lack of a definition of time, and
not by the lack of a definition of
“chair”? Why shouldn't we
be puzzled in all cases where we haven't got a
definition? Now a definition often clears up the
grammar of a word. And in fact it is the
grammar of the word “time” which puzzles us.
We are only expressing this puzzlement by asking a slightly
misleading question, the question: “What
is … ?” This question is an utterance of
unclarity, of mental discomfort; and it is comparable with the
question “Why?” as children so often
ask it. This too is an expression of a mental
discomfort, and doesn't necessarily ask for either a
cause or a reason. (Hertz,
Principles of Mechanics). Now the
puzzlement about the grammar of the word
42.
“time”
arises from what one might call apparent contradictions in that
grammar.