Questions tagged [wittgenstein]
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher, professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge (1939-1947). He worked in foundations of mathematics and on mathematical logic, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He played a central, if controversial, role in 20th-century analytic philosophy.
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What is meant by an Appeal?
To Appeal to a concept would seem to originally be (in the day of Greek metaphysics) a somewhat poetic device metaphorically gesturing toward whatever concept understanding might be sought from.
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Which works of Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Dewey does Rorty call "therapeutic"?
In the introduction to Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature Rorty speaks of later works of Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Dewey as
therapeutic rather than constructive, edifying rather than systematic, ...
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How would Wittgenstein respond to Functionalist accounts of consciousness?
So far, I've only been able to dig up a partial footnote by Kripke in his essay "Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language" where he tantalizingly writes that
"... Wittgenstein would regard his ...
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Why did Wittgenstein read out loud metaphysical poetry to the Vienna Circle?
In this essay by Phil Shields, Wittgenstein & Silence he relates the following story:
Wittgenstein was invited to a meeting of the Vienna circle:
“When he finally came, instead of answering their ...
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Wittgenstein on algorithm decidability and Incompleteness Theorem [closed]
I found Internet resources a bit confusing, so I ask this question:
What are Wittgenstein's arguments on algorithm decidability and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem?
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Given Wittgenstein's characterisation of language as essentially public, can he characterise what form thinking takes?
According to Wittgenstein, language is an essentially public activity between minds; and language is structured by a grammar so that this communication can indeed occur. I think, the notion of ...
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Wittgenstein maintains language is public, can this be correct?
I come into the world where other beings are using language. I learn this.
Those beings have come into the world where other beings are using language. They learn it.
Those other beings come into ...
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Are there any true Wittgensteinians?
[CRUCIAL CLARIFICATION: unless I explicitly say otherwise, all references to Wittgenstein, or W, below should be read as "the post-Tractatus Wittgenstein." I am not interested in those who ...
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What does Wittgenstein mean by "grammatical jokes"?
In §111 of his Philosophical Investigation, Ludwig Wittgenstein writes (my hopefully not-too-inept translation1):
Let’s ask ourselves: why do we perceive a grammatical joke as deep? (And that is ...
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What are some good books about Wittgenstein's philosophy of language?
I'm a computer science PhD student which does some work in Knowledge Representation, and I have studied a lot of (mathematical) logic. As far as I remember from my high school philosophy classes, ...
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Does Wittgenstein's Tractatus establish serious bounds for discussions of the supernatural from a modern point of view?
In today's mathematics, we have many variants of logic (propositional, first order, higher order, fuzzy logic, etc.). These are all self-consistent formal systems that are based on some set of axioms.
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Intentionality: Object directed vs. 'As if in the presence of an object'
A philosophical project of mine depends on an assertion which at first seems problematic, but one that I believe is correct.
Background
Following Husserl, modern philosophy is in accord that the ...
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Which if any philosophers might be considered affiliated with Wittgenstein's school of thought or have expressed similar views?
Are there any philosophers who might be considered affiliated or belonging to the same turn or school, or perhaps hold the same kind of views, as Wittgenstein?
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Did Wittgenstein's maxim about doubt and knowing originate from Descartes?
Wittgenstein said, "If you cannot doubt a thing, you cannot know it."
For example he said that you cannot know your pain because you cannot doubt that you are in pain. I don't quite understand this ...
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Why would Wittgenstein say we can't have a perfect language?
I have been reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and my question is how does he come to realize that we can't have a perfect language.
For instance I would say math is a perfect ...
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How do we know how to follow a rule?
This question seems to either be at the forefront or the background of countless philosophical enquiries. Much has been written on Wittgenstein's rule paradox (e.g. Kirke's Wittgenstein: On Rules and ...
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Should Wittgenstein be given some credit for Godel's incompleteness theorem?
Is there a connection between Wittgenstein's argument against the "Theory of Types" and the proof of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem? Being only semi-knowledgeable, I will draw the connection of which ...
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Can Kant's Copernican revolution be viewed as an extension of Wittgensteinian language games?
Forgive me if this question is clumsily posed.
The so-called 'Copernican revolution' of declaring the mind as bringing objecthood and properties to objects, rather than their perception bringing ...
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Is it true that Wittgenstein gave away most of his heritage? [closed]
It is said, that Wittgenstein wrote to Russel that he gave all the money he inherited from his rich father to his sisters.
Is that true?
If yes, what were the reasons for Wittgenstein to give away ...
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What are some ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus other than resolute/irresolute?
There are, at present, two dominant ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP). One is called the irresolute reading, the other the resolute reading.
The irresolute reading ...
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