The Philosophical Investigations

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The Philosophical Investigations

ABSTRACT: The Philosophical Investigations is an inherently pedagogical work. Wittgenstein claims throughout his later writings to be teaching a method and this method is both philosophical and pedagogical. It is the claim of this paper that if we do not take Wittgenstein's methodological claim seriously, we do not engage with the text in the manner for which it was written. Consequently, we begin and end in the wrong places and the text becomes (in the words of Wittgenstein) 'variously misunderstood, more or less mangled and watered-down.' §1 is philosophically and pedagogically complex. It presents the philosophical problems to which Wittgenstein will respond in the text which follows and it also, significantly, presents their solution. An investigation of the philosophical and pedagogical questions raised in the opening remark of the Investigations will demonstrate that we have not yet begun to use Wittgenstein's method and his writings to their full potential.

The Philosophical Investigations is an inherently pedagogical work. Wittgenstein claims throughout his later writings to be teaching a method, and this method is both philosophical and pedagogical. According to Moore and Fann he remarked to the effect that it did not matter whether his results were true or not, what mattered was that a method had been found (Moore 1993: 113). During the 1930s Wittgenstein also described the Investigations as a textbook; 'a textbook, however, not in that it provides knowledge (Wissen), but rather in that it stimulates thinking (Denken)'. (1) He claimed that the remarks which he wrote enabled him to teach philosophy well. (2) Although generally acknowledged within the secondary literature, these me...

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...hers.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1968) Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

__________ (1969) The Blue and Brown Books: Preliminary Studies for the 'Philosophical Investigations', Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

__________ (1980) Culture and Value, eds. G. H. von Wright and H. Nyman, trans. P. Winch, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

__________ (1982) Wittgenstein's Lectures 1932-1935, ed. Alice Ambrose, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

__________ (1988) Wittgenstein's Lectures on Philosophical Psychology 1967-47, ed. P. T. Geach, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

__________ (1993) Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951, eds J. Klagge and A. Nordman, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.

__________ (1993) 'Philosophy' in Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951, eds J. Klagge and A. Nordman, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.

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