University of Bergen, Specialized Study in Philosophy Autumn 2011, Course FIL211
http://rom.app.uib.no/timeplanliste.php?emne=FIL211&periode=2011h&lang=&simple=1


Alois Pichler & Simo Säätelä (Dep. of Philosophy): Introduction to Wittgenstein

 

Course description

This course will provide an introduction to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In addition to giving a general overview of his philosophical work and addressing the question of the relationship between his "early" and "late" philosophy, we will focus on a number of central Wittgensteinian themes such as the picture theory, meaning, language-games, family resemblance, rule-following, the private language argument, the relation between the "inner" and the "outer", mathematics, certainty, perception, art and aesthetics, style and culture, ethics.

Course plan


AP = Alois Pichler

KSJ = Kjell S. Johannessen

SS = Simo Säätelä

  1. AP-aug 24: Wittgenstein: Nachlass, work(s) and editions [Biggs & Pichler 1993, Pichler 2005, Schulte 2005, Kenny 2005, Pichler & Biggs & Szeltner 2011]
  2. AP-aug 31: Problems of the Tractatus [Kenny ch. 2-4]
  3. AP-sep 7: The picture theory [Kenny ch. 5-6]
  4. AP-sep 14: From the Tractatus to language games, family resemblance and practice [Kenny ch. 6 and 9]
  5. KSJ-sep 21: The concept of practice in Wittgenstein's later philosophy [Johannessen 1988]
    • Week 38: Guest lecture by James Conant (Chicago)
  6. SS-sep 28: The Philosophical Investigations; Rule-following [Kenny ch. 9, Finkelstein 2000]
  7. SS-okt 5: Rule-following continued
  8. SS-okt 19: Inner and Outer; The private language argument [Candlish & Wrisley 2010, Kenny ch. 7-8, 10]
  9. SS-okt 26: Philosophy of mathematics [Säätelä (forthc.)]
    • Week 43: Guest lecture by Pär Segerdahl (Uppsala)
  10. KSJ-nov 2: Wittgenstein and aesthetics [Johannessen 2004, Säätelä 2002]
  11. SS-nov 9: Philosophy of perception; Ethics [Budd 1987, Christensen 2005, Crary 2005]
  12. AP-nov 16: Certainty and inter-cultural communication [Kenny ch. 11, Moyal-Sharrock 2010, Wenzel 2011, Johannessen 1988]
  13. AP&SS-nov 23: Philosophy, the “New Wittgenstein“ and questions of style [Conant 2001, Conant 2005, Pichler 2007, Perloff 2010, Glock 1991, Kenny ch. 12, Stern 2006]

Primary sources

(Available from http://www.wittgensteinsource.org or http://pm.nlx.com/xtf/search?browse-collections=true)

•      Lecture on Ethics. (10 p.)

•      Lectures 1930. In: Wittgenstein's Lectures Cambridge, 1930-1932. Ed. A. Ambrose. (40 p.)

•      Lectures in 1930-33. In: Mind 63-64 (1954-55).  Ed. G.E. Moore. (70 p.)

•      Lectures on Aesthetics. In: Lectures & Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. Ed. C. Barrett. (40 p.)

•      The Blue Book. (75 p.)

•      The Brown Book . (76 p.)

•      Philosophical Investigations I §§1-417, II ch. xi. (133 + 37 p.) [We recommend the revised 4th edition from 2009.]

 

Secondary sources

The numbers in brackets refer to the lecture plan (in total 13 lectures).

Coursebook

  • [2]-[13] A. Kenny (2006): Wittgenstein. Oxford: Blackwell. (191 p.)

Articles and talks

  • [1] M. Biggs & A. Pichler (1993): Wittgenstein: Two Source Catalogues and a Bibliography. Catalogues of the Published Texts and of the Published Diagrams, each Related to its Sources.  Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen 7. (175 p.)  http://wab.uib.no/wp-no7.pdf
  • [11] M. Budd (1987): "Wittgenstein on Seeing Aspects". In: Mind, New Series, Vol. 96, No. 381 (Jan., 1987). pp. 1-17. (17 p.) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2253758
  • [8] S. Candlish & G. Wrisley (2010): "Private Language". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.): The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition). (17 p.) http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/private-language
  • [11] A.-M. Christensen (2005): The Need for the Other in Wittgenstein’s Later Ethics http://wab.aksis.uib.no/wab_contrib-audio-cam-sk05.page
  • [13] J. Conant 2001): The continuity of Wittgenstein's philosophy: why worry about the Tractatus? http://wab.aksis.uib.no/wab_contrib-audio-cj.page
  • [13] J. Conant (2005): The Alleged Heresy of Mono-Wittgensteinianism http://wab.aksis.uib.no/wab_contrib-audio-cj-sk05.page
  • [11] A. Crary (2005): Wittgenstein and Ethics http://wab.aksis.uib.no/wab_contrib-audio-ca-sk05.page
  • [6] D. Finkelstein (2000): "Wittgenstein on Rules and Platonism". In A. Crary and R. Read. (eds.): The New Wittgenstein. London: Routledge. pp. 53-73. Available at UiB in e-book. (20 p.)
  • [13] H. Glock (1991): ”Philosophical Investigations section 128: ’theses in philosophy’ and undogmatic procedure”. In: R. L. Arrington and H.-J- Glock (eds.): Wittgenstein´s Philosophical Investigations: Text and context. London: Routledge. pp. 69-88. Available at UiB in e-book. (19 p.)
  • [5, 12] Kjell S. Johannessen (1988). ”The Concept of Practice in Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy”. In: Inquiry 31 (3), pp. 357–369. (12 p.)
  • [10] Kjell S. Johannessen (2004). ”Wittgenstein and the aesthetic domain”. In: Peter Lewis (ed.): Wittgenstein, aesthetics, and philosophy. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 11-36. (25 p.)
  • [1] A. Kenny (2005): ”A brief history of Wittgenstein editing”. In: Alois Pichler, Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen 17. pp. 341-355. (14 p.) http://www.ontos-verlag.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-open.tpl&product_id=160&category_id=29&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 (Revised edition)
  • [12] Daniéle Moyal-Sharrock (2010): ”Coming to Language: Wittgenstein’s Social ’Theory’ of Language Acquisition”. In: Volker Munz, Klaus Puhl, Joseph Wang (eds.): Language and World. Part One. Heusenstamm: Ontos. pp. 291-314. (23 p.) http://www.ontos-verlag.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=305&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1
  • [13] M. Perloff (2010): ”Writing Philosophy as Poetry: Wittgenstein’s Literary Syntax”. In: Volker Munz, Klaus Puhl, Joseph Wang (eds.): Language and World. Part Two. Heusenstamm: Ontos. pp. 277-296. (20 p.) http://www.ontos-verlag.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=305&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1
  • [1] Pichler (2005): ”Wittgenstein's Nachlass: Situating the Bergen Electronic Edition”.  In: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Analytic Philosophy. Edited by Maria Stoicheva. pp.12-21.  Sofia: QUTU. (9 p.) http://wab.uib.no//alois/pichler-qutu05.pdf
  • [13] A. Pichler (2007): ”The Interpretation of the Philosophical Investigations: Style, Therapy, Nachlass”.  In: Wittgenstein and His Interpreters, Essays in Memory of Gordon Baker. Edited by Guy Kahane, Edward Kanterian and Oskari Kuusela. pp. 123-144. Oxford: Blackwell.  (21 p.)
  • [1] A. Pichler, M.A.R. Biggs & A. Szeltner (2011): ”Bibliographie der deutsch- und englischsprachigen Wittgenstein-Ausgaben”. In: Wittgenstein-Studien 2011, pp. 249-286. Edited by Wilhelm Lütterfelds, Stefan Majetschak, Richard Raatzsch and Wilhelm Vossenkuhl. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter (37 p.) http://www.ilwg.eu/files/Wittgenstein_Bibliographie.pdf
  • [1] J. Schulte (2005): ” What is a work by Wittgenstein?”. In: Alois Pichler, Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen 17. pp. 356-363. (7 p.) http://www.ontos-verlag.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-open.tpl&product_id=160&category_id=29&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 (Revised edition)
  • [13] G. Stern (2006): ”How many Wittgensteins?” In: A. Pichler and S. Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and His Works. Heusenstamm: ontos. pp. 205-229. (15 p.) http://www.ontos-verlag.de/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-open.tpl&product_id=160&category_id=29&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 (Revised edition)
  • [10] S. Säätelä (2002): ”’'Perhaps the Most Important Thing in Aesthetics' – Wittgenstein on 'Aesthetic Reactions'”. In: Revue Internationale de Philosophie 1/2002, Vol 56, No 219, pp. 49-72. (23 p.)
  • [9] S. Säätelä (forthc.): "Wittgenstein on Understanding 'Open Problems' in Mathematics". In: O. Kuusela and M. McGinn (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (21 p.)
  • [12] Chr. H. Wenzel (2011): ”On Wittgenstein on Certainty”. In: Christoph Jäger, Winfried Löffler (eds.): Epistemology: Contexts, Values, Disagreement. Papers of the 34th International Wittgenstein Symposium. pp. 320-322. Kirchberg am Wechsel: Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society.  (3 p.)
  • [11] Edition and commentaries: E. Zamuner, E. V. Di Lascio & D. Levy (ed., 2007): Lecture on ethics. Introduction, Interpretation and Complete Text.  QuodlibeT: Macerata. (267 p.)

Recommended reference work

  • H. Glock (1996): A Wittgenstein Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell.