[Wittrs] Teaching Wittgenstein
- From: Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 12:44:25 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings Neil.
Here is what I would say. The idea of what "thinking" is, and how to make it
better is a tough subject. At first we need to know what we mean. Cf:
mathematical thinking, creative thinking. critical thinking. artistic
thinking, logic thinking, scientific thinking. Surely there are all sorts of
college courses that teach skills in each of these domains.
To get hold of this, we need to recognize two things. 1. What is said about
"thinking" is related in important ways to culture. That is why there are
intellectual epochs (classicism, Enlightenment, moral sciences, etc.). 2.
Wittgenstein's life represented not only a journey across two culturally
dominate epochs of intellectual history (Soames: analytical formalism to "the
age of meaning"), but is also a BEACON for the ascendancy of both.
Putting 1 and 2 together, we are left with a choice. Teach the class as a
history course -- something like a documentary. Or, don't teach ABOUT it --
don't report on it as a journalist would -- but, rather, teach it as a set of
thinking orientations that the students themselves participate in, as SKILLS.
By comparison, you will note that analyticity teaches skills: it teaches
students certain intellectual behaviors. Understanding Wittgenstein is
understanding another strata of intellectual skill. And you can't simply say
it, you must SHOW it. The best way to show it is through biography, through his
life. The students never have to accept anything (in any of my classes); they
merely must show they understand it. Indeed, only a strong understanding of it,
gives you proper grounds to reject it. And I would argue that anyone who
knowingly rejects it is better for it than he who unknowingly does. That is, it
will even make Alan Turing a better man.
The idea for this comes from the way I teach philosophy of law. I do something
similar. I tie it to culture (intellectual history) first. Then I tie it to a
set of frameworks that rely upon various skills. The point is never to say
"what the law says," but to say what the framework-orientation says about this,
and whether the framework seems refined or not. It takes a whole semester to
get them out of the idea that, "the law says something, X," to seeing that the
SAYING of X first involves a picture-framework -- which itself first requires a
connoisseur judgment for its "validity." You completely have to re-orient the
way they think. Again, they are only tested on whether they UNDERSTAND, not
whether they agree. Having touched the thing, they can go about through their
lives and make of it what they will.
You will note that in philosophy of law, there is a similar journey from
analytical formalism into holism or "the age of meaning."). This is because
legal culture mimics intellectual culture. The story here is explicitly
Wittgensteinian, because Wittgenstein is at the center of how we think as a
culture. It is true, of course, that the scourge of post-modernism is also upon
us -- and this is largely due to the fact that people cannot see the difference
between post-analytic and post-modern thought. What a beautiful thing to show
students in the class: that the difference is Wittgenstein!!
I'm going to have them write some small papers in Wittgensteinian method.
They'll keep a notebook. They'll make a manuscript. Then a typescript. Then
they'll declare it rubbish and never hand it it after that!!
Oh God it will be so much fun!
If I put the class on the web, will any of you join as students?? I'll let you
participate. Let's say I have a webcam where you can talk inside the class.
Wouldn't it just be the most splendid thing in the history of all the earth
itself??
I'm so excited.
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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