Wittgenstein on Forms of Life, Patterns of Life, and Ways of Living

Authors

  • Daniele Moyal-Sharrock University of Hertfordshire

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15845/nwr.v4i0.3362

Keywords:

Wittgenstein Ludwig, form of life, patterns of life, language-game, certainty

Abstract

This paper aims to distinguish Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘form of life’ from other concepts or expressions that have been confused or conflated with it, such as ‘language-game’, ‘certainty’, ‘patterns of life’, ‘ways of living’ and ‘facts of living’. Competing interpretations of Wittgenstein’s ‘form(s) of life’ are reviewed (Baker & Hacker, Cavell, Conway, Garver), and it is concluded that Wittgenstein intended both a singular and a plural use of the concept; with, where the human is concerned, a single human form of life characterized by innumerable forms of human life.

Author Biography

Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, University of Hertfordshire

Danièle Moyal-Sharrock teaches philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire (UK), and is President of the British Wittgenstein Society. Her publications, mostly in English and French, focus on Wittgenstein’s contribution to epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of psychology. She is the author of Understanding Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (2004/2007) and the translator of On Certainty into French (Gallimard, 2006). Her edited volumes include The Third Wittgenstein (2004), Readings of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (2005/2007), and Perspicuous Presentations: Essays on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Psychology (2007); forthcoming are: Hinge Epistemology (with A. Coliva) and F. R. Leavis: critic, teacher, philosopher. She is currently working on a book: Wittgenstein: The Genius of Philosophy.

References

Baker. G.P. and Hacker, P.M.S. 2009a. Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning. Volume I of An Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations: Part II – Exegesis §1-184. 2nd, extensively revised edition by P.M.S Hacker. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

Baker. G.P. and Hacker, P.M.S. 2009b. Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity. Volume II of An Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations. Essays and Exegesis of §185-242. 2nd, extensively revised edition by P.M.S Hacker. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

Canfield, J.V., 2007. Becoming Human: The Development of Language, Self, and Self-Consciousness. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cavell, S., 1969. Must We Mean What We Say: A Book of Essays. New York: CUP.

Cavell, S., 1996. “Declining Decline”. In: The Cavell Reader, ed. S. Mulhall Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, pp. 321-52.

Conway, G. D., 1989. Wittgenstein on Foundations. NJ: Humanities Press.

Garver, N., 1994. This Complicated Form of Life: Essays on Wittgenstein. Chicago: Open Court.

Glock, H.-J., 1996. A Wittgenstein Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hanfling, O., 2002. Wittgenstein and the Human Form of Life. London: Routledge.

Harris, R., 1988. Language, Saussure and Wittgenstein: How to Play Games with Words. London: Routledge.

Marques, A. and Venturinha, N., 2010. Form(s) of Life and the Nature of Experience. Bern: Peter Lang International Publishing.

Majetschak, S., 2010. “Forms and Patterns of Life: A Reassessment of a So-Called Basic Concept in the Late Philosophy of Wittgenstein”. In Marques, A. & Venturinha, N., eds. 2010: Wittgenstein on Form(s) of Life and the Nature of Experience. Bern: Lang, pp. 75-96.

McGinn, M., 1997. The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. London: Routledge.

Merleau-Ponty, H., 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Colin Smith. London: Routledge.

Moyal-Sharrock, D., 2003. “Logic in Action: Wittgenstein’s Logical Pragmatism and the Impotence of Scepticism”, Philosophical Investigations 26:2, 125-48.

Moyal-Sharrock, D. (Forthcoming). “Universal Grammar: Wittgenstein versus Chomsky”.

Moyal-Sharrock, D. (Forthcoming). “The Myth of the Quietist Wittgenstein”.

Rhees, R. (ed.) 1981. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Schulte, J., 2010. “Does the Devil in Hell Have a Form of Life?”. In Marques, A. & Venturinha, N., eds. 2010: Wittgenstein on Forms of Life and the Nature of Experience. Bern: Lang, pp. 125-142.

Segerdahl, P., 2014. “Being Humans When We Are Animals”. Nordic Wittgenstein Review 3 (2), pp. 125-149.

ter Hark, M. 1990. Beyond the Inner and the Outer: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology. Kluwer, Dordrecht.

Wittgenstein, L. 1966. Lectures & Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, from the notes of Y. Smithies, R. Rhees and J. Taylor, ed. C. Barrett. Oxford: Blackwell. [LC]

Wittgenstein, L. 1970. Zettel. G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright (eds). Trans G.E.M. Anscombe, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970. [Z]

Wittgenstein, L. 1976. Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge 1939, from the notes of R.G. Bosanquet, N. Malcolm, R. Rhees and Y. Smythies, ed. C. Diamond. Hassocks: Harvester Press. [LFM]

Wittgenstein, L. 1977. On Certainty, ed. G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright, tr. D. Paul and G.E.M. Anscombe, amended 1st Edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 1977. [OC]

Wittgenstein, L. 1978. Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, ed. G.H. von Wright, R. Rhees and G.E.M. Anscombe, tr. G.E.M. Anscombe, 3rd revised Edition, Oxford: Blackwell. [RFM]

Wittgenstein, L. 1980. Culture and Value, ed. G.H. von Wright in collaboration with H. Nyman, tr. P. Winch, amended 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. [CV]

Wittgenstein, L. 1980. Remarks on the Philosophy Of Psychology, vol. I, ed. G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright, tr. G.E.M. Anscombe, Oxford: Blackwell. [RPP I]

Wittgenstein, L. 1980. Remarks on the Philosophy Of Psychology, vol. II, ed. G.H. von Wright and H. Nyman, tr. C.G. Luckhardt and M.A.E. Aue, Oxford: Blackwell. [RPP II]

Wittgenstein, L. 1982. Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol I, ed. G.H. von Wright and H. Nyman, tr. C.G. Luckhardt and M.A.E. Aue. Oxford, Blackwell.[ LW I]

Wittgenstein, L. 1992. Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol II, ed. G.H. von Wright and H. Nyman, tr. C.G. Luckhardt and M.A.E. Aue. Oxford: Blackwell. [LW II]

Wittgenstein, L. 1993. “Cause and Effect: Intuitive Awareness”. In: Philosophical Occasions: 1912-1951, ed. J.C. Klagge and A. Nordman. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, pp. 371-426. [CE]

Wittgenstein, L., 1997. Philosophical Investigations, tr. G.E.M. Anscombe, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997 [PI-Anscombe]

Wittgenstein, L. 2009. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. [PI]

Downloads

Published

2015-10-06