Philosophy 186B

The focus of the course is Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, often considered one the most important works of twentieth-century philosophy. This work, written in the later part of Wittgenstein’s career, offers a thoroughgoing critique of traditional philosophical approaches to language and mind, and it does so in a way which is itself very untraditional. Rather than putting forward and defending philosophical claims, Wittgenstein offers a kind of scrapbook of observations, scenarios, descriptions of aspects of human behavior, questions, and imagined stretches of dialogue. What he says appears to be intended to make us question the ways in which philosophy is traditionally practiced, but it is not clear what, if anything, he means to put in its place. And while what he writes is usually not difficult to understand at a sentence-by-sentence basis, it is often very difficult to know what his point is in saying the things he says. We will aim in the course to arrive at an understanding of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy through a close reading of central parts of the work, although we will also pay some attention to other late writings by Wittgenstein and to interpretations put forward in the secondary literature. Because much of Wittgenstein’s purpose in the Investigations is to question the ways in philosophy is typically pursued, students are advised not to take this course unless they already have a substantial background in philosophy. It is strongly recommended in particular that students in the course have taken either Philosophy 25A or 25B (or equivalent) and at least one of Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, and Theory of Meaning.