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Philosophical questions are verbal in the sense that
they turn upon unconventional uses of language ;
but they are not merely verbal for,in virtue of their oddity,
in the process of justifying their use,
one's attention is called to matters obscured by conventional language.
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Metaphysical paradoxes and platitudes function as penetrating suggestions as to how language might be used to reveal what is hidden by the actual use of language.
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In philosophical analysis penumbral facts
-matters to which certain conversational sentences call attention-
are compared to non-penumbral facts
-matters to which the penumbral are presumably reducible-
in order to determine whether the switch from one kind of statement to another is advisable and illuminating.
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The goal of philosophy is the clarification of the structure of facts.
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Philosophers do not uncover new facts,
but they show us old facts in a new way.
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