BASC50034 - Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

Course Description

We will do a close reading of Wittgenstein’s seminal—and enormously influential—work, Philosophical Investigations. We will read and discuss the text sentence by sentence, section by section—and continue for as long as it takes to get through (at least) Part I (i.e., that portion which Wittgenstein himself prepared for publication). The point of such a close reading is—as I believe Wittgenstein intended it should be—not only to learn to think differently about fundamental philosophical problems but still more importantly to see these problems differently—i.e., to see them not as problems to be resolved but confusions to be clarified, and to develop a certain sensibility for linguistic (grammatical) confusions.

The class should appeal to anyone who either enjoys thinking or who wants to be freed from the compulsion to think. (No background or previous familiarity required.)

Notes

Text: Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations Wiley-Blackwell (an imprint of; 4th Edition edition (2009) ISBN: 978-1405159296