50 Years After Wittgenstein’s Vienna. On Wittgenstein, Toulmin and Philosophy. Tomasz Zarębski in Conversation With Allan Janik

Tomasz Zarębski; Allan Janik

doi:10.15845/nwr.v12.3700

Authors

Tomasz Zarębski University of Lower Silesia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8865-8231
Allan Janik The University of Innsbruck, Professor Emeritus https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2508-6941

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15845/nwr.v12.3700

Keywords:

Janik, Toulmin, Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein's Vienna

Abstract

In this interview, Tomasz Zarębski speaks with Allan Janik, co-author of Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973, with Stephen Toulmin), on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the publication of this pathbreaking book. The conversation concerns the circumstances, motivations and reasons for his undertaking the work on the book, as well as its reception and place in Wittgenstein scholarship. A large part of the discussion refers to his perspective of Wittgenstein, Toulmin’s philosophical writings, and Janik’s own vision of philosophy. The interview took place in Innsbruck on 23^rd and 25^th August 2023.

Author Biographies

Tomasz Zarębski, University of Lower Silesia

Tomasz Zarębski works as an associate professor at the University of Lower Silesia in Wrocław (Poland). He deals with themes of contemporary philosophy of language, epistemology and the philosophy of education. In his books, he focused on the philosophy of Stephen Toulmin (Od paradygmatu do kosmopolis, Wrocław 2005) and Robert Brandom’s inferentialism (Neopragmatyzm Roberta B. Brandoma, Kraków 2013). He is also a translator of philosophical authors into Polish (incl. Toulmin, Wittgenstein, Searle, Cavell, Derrida and Conant).

Allan Janik, The University of Innsbruck, Professor Emeritus

Allan Janik (1941), philosopher and historian of ideas, retired Senior Research Fellow of the Brenner Archives, Innsbruck University, is an honorary professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna. His publications apart from Wittgenstein’s Vienna include Wittgenstein’s Vienna Revisited, Assembling Reminders, Hitler’s Favorite Jew: The Enigma of Otto Weininger, The Concept of Knowledge in Practical Philosophy (in Swedish), Augenblicke (a study of skill formation in acting in German),The Use and Abuse of Metaphor, Theater and Knowledge, Style, Politics and the Future of Philosophy as well as the study Towards a New Philosophy for the EU.