EPISTEMOLOGY ‘‘Motor cars don’t grow out of the earth’’ was one of Wittgenstein’s examples of propositions that build up our world picture It was by calling such propositions in question that surrealists like Joan Miro´ achieved their effects which I distinguish between true and false Children not learn them; they as it were swallow them down with what they learn (OC 94, 476) It is quite sure that motor cars don’t grow out of the earth We feel that if someone could believe the contrary he could believe everything we say is untrue, and could question everything that we hold to be sure But how does this one belief hang together with all the rest? We would like to say that someone who could believe that does not accept our whole system of verification The system is something that a human being acquires by means of observation and instruction I intentionally not say ‘learns’ (OC 279) When we first begin to believe anything, we believe not a single proposition but a whole system: light dawns gradually over the whole Though these propositions give the foundations of our language-games, they not provide grounds, or premisses for language-games ‘Giving 167