Wittgenstein on Understanding and Emotion: Grammar and Methods
Abstract
Emotion is an important issue in Wittgenstein’s philosophy of psychology, yet the literature on this topic is quite small. Wittgenstein’s philosophical investigation is a grammatical one, and he tries to dissolve philosophical problems by using many philosophical methods. In this paper I examine the grammatical rules for some emotion words and the methods he employs in dealing with the philosophical problem of emotion. To facilitate this examination, I first analyze Wittgenstein’s treatment of the problem of sudden understanding, where the grammar and methods are easier to comprehend. I will then show that the grammar and methods used by Wittgenstein in the cases of sudden understanding and emotion are rather similar.
References
Baker, Gordon, 2004. Wittgenstein’s Method: Neglected Aspects. Oxford: Blackwell.
Black, Carolyn, 1990. “Very Late Wittgenstein on Emotion.” Grazer Philosophische Studien 38: 99–114.
Canfield, John V., 2007. “Wittgenstein on Fear.” In Perspicuous Presentations: Essays on Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology, edited by Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, pp. 12–27. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
———, 2009. “The Self and Emotion.” In Gustafsson, Camilla Kronqvist and Michael McEachrane (2009), pp. 102–12.
Conant, James, 2012. “Wittgenstein’s Methods.” In Kuusela and McGinn (2012), pp. 620–45.
Engelmann, Mauro L., 2013. Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Development: Phenomenology, Grammar, Method, and the Anthropological View. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Forster, Michael N., 2004. Wittgenstein on the Arbitrariness of Grammar. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Goodman, Russell B., 2004. Wittgenstein and William James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gustafsson, Ylva, Camilla Kronqvist and Michael McEachrane, eds., 2009. Emotions and Understanding: Wittgensteinian Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hacker, Peter S. M., 2010. “The Development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology.” In Mind, Method, and Morality: Essays in Honour of Anthony Kenny, edited by John Cottingham and Peter Hacker, pp. 275–305. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2012. “Wittgenstein on Grammar, Theses, and Dogmatism.” Philosophical Investigations 35: 1–17.
Hilmy, S. Stephen, 1987. The Later Wittgenstein: The Emergence of a New Philosophical Method. Oxford: Blackwell.
James, William, 1983. The Principles of Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kuusela, Oskari and Marie McGinn, eds., 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lin, Francis Y., 2019a. “Wittgenstein on Thinking as a Process or an Activity.” Wittgenstein-Studien 10: 73–104.
———, 2019b. “Wittgenstein on Understanding as a Mental State.” Philosophical Investigations 42: 367–95.
Malcolm, Norman, 2001. Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
McGinn, Marie, 2011. “Grammar in the Philosophical Investigations.” In Kuusela and McGinn (2012), pp. 646–66.
Moore, George E., 2013. “Wittgenstein’s Lectures in 1930-33.” In Philosophical Papers, pp. 252–324. London: Routledge.
Savickey, Beth, 1999. Wittgenstein’s Art of Investigation. London: Routledge.
Schroeder, Severin, 2017. “Wittgenstein on Grammar and Grammatical Statements.” In A Companion to Wittgenstein, edited by Hans-Johann Glock and John Hyman, pp. 252–68. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Schulte, Joachim, 1993. “Emotion.” In Experience and Expression: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology, pp. 120–34. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
———, 2002. “Wittgenstein’s ‘Method’.” In Wittgenstein and the Future Philosophy: A Reassessment after 50 Years, edited by Rudolf Haller and Klaus Puhl, pp. 399–410. Vienna: ÖVB HTP.
———, 2009. “Wittgenstein on Emotion.” In Gustafsson, Camilla Kronqvist and Michael McEachrane (2009), pp. 27–42.
von Wright, George H., 1982. Wittgenstein. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1974. Philosophical Grammar, edited by R. Rhees. Translated by A. Kenny. Oxford: Blackwell. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [1933].
———, 1979. Wittgenstein’s Lectures, Cambridge 1932—35, edited by Alice Ambrose. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1980a. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology: Vol. I, edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [1947].
———, 1980b. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology: Vol. II, edited by G. H. von Wright and H. Nyman. Translated by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [1948].
———, 1982. Last Writings in the Philosophy of Psychology, Vol. I & II, edited by G. H. von Wright and H. Nyman. Translated by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Blackwell. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [Vol. I: 1948–49; Vol. II: 1950–51].
———, 1988. Wittgenstein’s Lectures on Philosophical Psychology 1946–7, edited by Peter T. Geach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 2005. The Big Typescript: TS213, German–English Scholars’ edition, edited and translated by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Blackwell. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [1933].
———, 2007. Zettel, edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Berkeley: University of California Press. Estimated date of origin of the manuscript (in German Language) [1929–48].
———, 2009. Philosophische Untersuchungen / Philosophical Investigations, Revised fourth edition, translated by G. E. M. Anscombe, P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. First published in 1953.
Wyss, Sebastian, 2015. “Does Wittgenstein Have a Method? The Challenges of Conant and Schulte.” Nordic Wittgenstein Review 4: 167–93.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The Public Knowledge Project recommends the use of the Creative Commons license. The Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy requires authors to agree to a Creative Commons Attribution /Non-commercial license. Authors who publish with the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC license.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
