[Wittrs] Teaching Wittgenstein
- From: Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 21:43:08 -0700 (PDT)
... thinking about what to teach in the course I am preparing for the
Humanities master program, which will be cross listed with the philosophy
department and political science. The course is supposed to be about
Wittgenstein and his relationship to contemporary intellectual culture. But
what I am thinking of doing is this.
I just want to teach, in essence, the skills of thinking. This doesn't mean
what it does on the lips of professors of rhetoric, argument or "logic" (or
what not). It means, in essence, to teach the skills of insight over those of
analysis through the vehicles of developmentalism in intellectual culture and
Wittgensteinian biography in particular.
So what you would do, after providing background on Aristotelian classicism and
the Enlightenment, is to take students through the mid 1800s moral sciences
period. You's show how claims purport to be grounded. You then go into the
hardened analytical-positivism. And then, you simply start teaching about
Wittgenstein's life. You show the Tractatus. And then, being about 1/5 of the
way through the course, you show the transformation of intellectual culture.
You show how stressing analytical formalism as a means unto itself dies off in
favor of stressing insight, holistic and perspectival accounts (frameworks) as
the key to having understanding. In short, understanding governs analyticity.
Again, you teach this through Wittgenstein's life.
Students would learn, firstly, to analyze formally. (Or would learn about
that). Then, they would learn the things that bring the walls down: meaning is
use, family resemblance, grammar, conditions of assertability, rule following,
picturing, frameworks, aspect seeing, connoisseur judgment, language games,
false problems, imponderable evidence, etc. And you teach these as SKILLS. You
teach a student to aspect see. You show them both WHAT a connoisseur judgment
is and how it can be culturally constituted (in behavior) to be better than
other forms of judgment -- and what the implications of this are for
philosophy. You teach students the skill of catching assertability issues. Of
catching issues with sense.
Along the way, you could even teach them Wittgensteinian method: the use of
similes, conjugating a person's lexicon, juxtaposing expressions against one
another or against their common use -- all for purpose of untying knots and
dissolving problems into peace. Students would even learn the value of silence
and quieting all sorts of discussions.
They would learn, in essence, to see culture in action whenever an utterance
was made.
Having learnt of Wittgenstein's biographical life and having been exposed to
the central contributions he makes to intellectual culture, students are then
EXTREMELY well-oriented to picking up specific books by Wittgenstein (on their
own) and understanding them. Any book they buy, they would already be "keyed
in." Also, they will be attuned to the various sorts of problems one sees in
the discourse and disputes made all around them -- in science, social science,
and elsewhere.
Here's what I want to say: This course would complete everything they would
need to know to grow intellectually. It would also be held as a model in
contrast to the hideous way that philosophy-the-social-club might go about
teaching Wittgenstein. Which is to say, to have them read a passage and "judge
the argument." As if Wittgenstein could be understood by half-wits with logic
score cards. Indeed, the first time one said, "Wittgenstein's argument here
fails ..." you would only know all too well that misunderstanding lay upon the
other side of the mouth.
(I'm going to web cast the entire class. Everything will be on the internet).
Regards and thanks.
Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.
Assistant Professor
Wright State University
Personal Website: http://seanwilson.org
SSRN papers: http://tinyurl.com/3eatnrx
Wittgenstein Discussion: http://seanwilson.org/wiki/doku.php?id=wittrs ;
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