FA18 PHIL425/525

This course is a survey of (parts of) the major works from each of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s three ‘periods’: the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations, and On Certainty. Some of the topics to be considered include: the nature of reality; logical pictures; language games and forms of life; therapy; meaning-as-use; rule-following; skepticism and brute confidence; and hinges. Wittgenstein was also concerned with not only saying what is the case and how things are, but also with showing and doing. Consequently, we shall follow along in the same vein. The course will begin with some logically tight, interlocking lectures, hierarchically organized in terms of propositions and subpropositions. Next, and with a methodological air of therapy, we will ponder massive revisions to what was said, which undermine the entire system of lectures. Finally, it will all end with discussion of an unordered list of note-scraps about our vast uncertainty of what just happened. (No pokers or Derek Jarman references will be permitted.)