Wittgenstein's ethical thought / Yaniv Iczkovits.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Iczkovits, Yaniv, 1975-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.

Ethics, Modern--20th century.

Ethics, Modern.

Physical Description:

xi, 200 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Summary:

Ludwig Wittgenstein is not generally regarded an ethical thinker. He is typically taken to be preoccupied with themes in the philosophy of language and mind that are presumed to be external to or independent of ethics. But there has, in recent years, been a growing tendency to see his preoccupation with these topics as having significant implications for ethics.

This book offers a systematic account of Wittgenstein's unique ethical thought, both in his early and in his later writings. It challenges the widespread view that Wittgenstein had a vision of language and subsequently a vision of ethics by showing how the two are actually integrated in his work on meaning and his philosophical method per se. This significant integration retrieves the interdependence of grammar and ethics, and allows us to reframe traditional problems in moral philosophy that are presumed to be external to questions of meaning. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Rungs of the "Ethical" Ladder 15

1 What's the point? 15

2 Traditional, positivist and resolute readings of the ethical 17

3 Ethics and nonsense - a brief assessment 22

4 Who is the reader of the book? 25

5 The "ethical": Principia Ethica - first "rung" 29

6 Almost an ethical point: absolute moral judgments - second "rung" 36

7 The ethical point - throwing away the "ethical" ladder 46

2 Philosophical Imaginations 50

1 Break or continuity? 50

2 Augustine and the Tractates 51

3 Form of life as a form of ethics 57

4 Augustine and private language 60

5 Natural history and description 68

3 On Certainty and Honesty 72

1 Why Moore? 72

2 Beginning to read On Certainty 77

3 What is the main subject of On Certainty! 81

4 Skepticism, Moore, and the ethical 110

4 World-Picture and World-View 114

1 Commentaries on the "hinge" propositions 114

2 The "linguistic naturalistic fallacy" of "hinges" 118

3 Approaching the notion of world-picture 120

4 Language is not a game 126

5 Moore and the king 130

6 What is a world-picture? 132

7 Is this a "Weltanschauung"? 138

8 A "solution" to an ethical problem 141

5 The Reality of What is Said 147

1 Wittgenstein and moral philosophy 148

2 Why should I be moral? 151

3 Ethics and world-views 159

4 Moral transformation and moral "argument" 162

5 The reality of freedom 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 186-193) and index.

ISBN:

9781137026354

1137026359

OCLC:

792747599