GREAT PHILOSOPHERS: WITTGENSTEIN
PHIL 310, Sec. 1001: MW 11:30am-12:45pm in GUA 2002
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Fall 2021
Professor: James Woodbridge
email address:
Course Webpage: http://faculty.unlv.edu/jwood/unlv/Phil310F21.htm
Office Hours: T 12:30pm-2pm, W 2:30pm-4pm, and by appointment
Office: CDC 426
Office Phone: 895-4051
Dept. Phone: 895-3433
SECOND PAPER
Pick one of following topics and write a 6-8 page/2000-2700 word paper fulfilling the tasks assigned. Be sure to incorporate citations to relevant passages from Philosophical Investigations (by remark number) as you address the issues indicated in the paper topics.
Do not use any outside sources: just the course readings and discussion, and your own thinking.
Your paper is due via WebCampus, through the Turnitin.com program linked to the Assignment listing there, by midnight on Saturday 12/4. [Note the new corrected date!] The file that you submit to Turnitin should have the following format for its filename: yourstudentnumber.PHIL310F21.paper2.docx. So that I can grade "blind", your name should not appear anywhere on your paper. Finally, you must submit a .docx (or .doc or .docm) file so that I can use Word to grade it. If you do not use Word, you must convert your file to this format before submitting it.
Topics:
1. In sections 138-155 and 172-198 of Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein critiques the idea that understanding language is a mental process or state. On this picture, understanding an expression (including a command or a series) is knowing its meaning, and this meaning is some sort of inner image (or inner instruction) that comes before one's mind, for example, a mental image of a cube (or a rule like "add 2"). This "mental state of understanding" is supposed to stand behind and guide or govern one's use of an expression. Explain the considerations that Wittgenstein offers against this picture in your own words, but, at the same time, include citations to relevant passages from the text. [Note: this is a different issue from the incoherence of private rule following.] Be sure to cover the contrast Wittgenstein draws between having an image in one's mind and applying it and the problem this raises. What does he say are the grounds on which we judge someone's exclamation of "Now I understand!" or "Now I know how to (can) go on!" to be justified? Does having a particular image (or formula) in mind play any role here? What about in the first-person case? Explain how Wittgenstein's observation regarding the experience of being guided factor in here. In pushing us away from the view of understanding as a mental state, with meaning being some inner image (or instruction), what picture of understanding and meaning is he pointing us towards?
2. In sections 243-315 of Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein considers the idea of a private language, that is, a language which only I understand. He focuses on the notion of a language putatively about one's sensations and uses the example of our talk involving use of the word 'pain' to argue that the notion of a private language is incoherent. Explain how this line of thought proceeds in your own words, but, at the same time, include citations to relevant passages from the text. (Pay particular attention to 258 and 293.) Be sure to cover what Wittgenstein says about first-person pain attribution and the contrast with third-person pain attribution. How might his points lead to the worry that Wittgenstein is replacing the idea that our talk employing the term 'pain' is about inner pain sensations with a behaviorist account of that talk? What is Wittgenstein's response to that understanding of his point (see 304, 307-8)? If pain attribution is not about inner sensations or merely about behavior, what do we use it for? What more general points about language should we take away from Wittgenstein's considerations regarding talk involving the term 'pain'?
Be sure to look at my Paper Requirements and Policies and check this Numbered Writing Comments Sheet to be aware of various writing infelicities that you should avoid.
Keep your paper within the page/word limit!