WAB: "Fragments" |
The audio contribution available from this site is a recording of
Allan Janik: Wittgenstein’s place in the history of philosophy, lecture given on 14.12.2001 at Wittgenstein Research Revisited: Reflecting upon 50 years of work on Wittgenstein and investigating future perspectives, conference at the University of Bergen, Norway,
12.-15.12.2001. Publication on this site with kind permission from the author (2005.4.25).
Allan Janik: Wittgenstein’s place in the history of philosophy
Abstract:
Perhaps the most astonishing claim that Ludwig Wittgenstein ever made was that he was basically an unoriginal thinker who merely reproduced the ideas of others with a vengeance in his philosophical "work of clarification". Foes as well as friends of his way of philosophizing for the most part find this statement simply absurd. Whatever Wittgenstein was, he was certainly a highly original thinker; however perverse one might consider his novel way of doing philosophy. Why, then, should he have so considered himself? Why do we have so much difficulty seeing what was more than obvious to him? The answer lies in the fact that friends and foes alike have not taken his own remarks about himself seriously enough to investigate meticulously the ways in which his ten precursors, Boltzmann, Hertz, Schopenhauer, Frege, Russell, Kraus, Loos, Weininger, Spengler, Sraffa, might have led him to develop his "work of clarification" as he did. Above all, Wittgenstein scholars have neglected the very beginning of his list.
Listen to lecture (QuickTime .mov format): © Text: Allan Janik, WAB. Audio: Allan Janik, Herbert Hrachovec, WAB.
If you don't have QuickTime installed, you can download it for free from here.
Allan Janik: Wittgenstein’s place in the history of philosophy
(Lecture in Bergen 14.12.2001)
Abstract:
Perhaps the most astonishing claim that Ludwig Wittgenstein ever made was that he was basically an unoriginal thinker who merely reproduced the ideas of others with a vengeance in his philosophical "work of clarification". Foes as well as friends of his way of philosophizing for the most part find this statement simply absurd. Whatever Wittgenstein was, he was certainly a highly original thinker; however perverse one might consider his novel way of doing philosophy. Why, then, should he have so considered himself? Why do we have so much difficulty seeing what was more than obvious to him? The answer lies in the fact that friends and foes alike have not taken his own remarks about himself seriously enough to investigate meticulously the ways in which his ten precursors, Boltzmann, Hertz, Schopenhauer, Frege, Russell, Kraus, Loos, Weininger, Spengler, Sraffa, might have led him to develop his "work of clarification" as he did. Above all, Wittgenstein scholars have neglected the very beginning of his list.
Listen to lecture (QuickTime .mov format): © Text: Allan Janik, WAB. Audio: Allan Janik, Herbert Hrachovec, WAB.
If you don't have QuickTime installed, you can download it for free from here.