Picture “sugar”

In this post, we sketched the picture of the academic. Here, we sketch the picture of sugar and relate it to some philosophy.

What is the picture of sugar, in Wittgenstein’s special sense of the term ‘picture’? What suggests itself immediately about sugar is the picture of a taste sensation. The character of the sensation flows upwards and outwards. We can reappreciate the feeling-flow of sugar by remembering it, recapturing the feeling-sensation.

Let us offer three further aspects of the picture of sugar: color, weight and temperature. Is there an aspect of the picture analogous to color? Is there a feeling-color of sugar? Provisionally, I say ‘lighter’. Pleasurable feelings are ‘lighter’ or ‘brighter’ than painful feelings which are ‘darker’ (such as humiliation). The weight of sugar is also light. Is the picture of sugar suggestive of a temperature?

We remember the taste of sugar, and bring the picture ‘sugar’ into what seemingly is a strong connection with the taste sensation. It is as though we recapture the actual taste sensation and reappreciate it. We read ‘It tastes like sugar’ off the picture ‘sugar’. We think we identify the substance sugar directly in the remembered taste. Is this correct?

Let’s substitute ‘It tastes like…’ with a simple exclamation ‘Sugar!’ Can we now say that ‘the substance sugar comes before my mind’ when I exclaim ‘Sugar!’ ? If it does, how does it do that? The picture ‘sugar’ is there. We do not dispute it. Is the sentence ‘It tastes like sugar’  read off the picture ‘sugar’?