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Continuing our discussion from part one of On Certainty (1951), we do some close reading of the text. How does he actually respond to Moore's argument about his hand? How does he extend his account to talk about mathematical and scientific statements? Is Wittgenstein a pragmatist?
You may want to review our episode on William James' pragmatist definition of truth.
We mention our U of Texas prof Edwin Allaire, who I see wrote his dissertation on the Tractatus.
We will be delving into this book further with episode 310, especially into the material related to relativism and the philosophy of science, and bringing in a guest to the mix for that as well. Stay tuned!
Check out the Tolkien Road Podcast at TolkienRoad.com. Keep up to date with the PEL 4/15 NYC live show at partiallyexaminedlife.com/liveshow.
I think a show on the philosophy of friendship would be interesting. The only guy I’ve found with much original to say is, https://www.booktopia.com.au/love-friendship-and-the-self-bennett-w-helm/book/9780199567898.html
I enjoyed these two episodes on On Certainty and share in Seth’s frustration over the reception of Wittgenstein and the inability to figure out whether he is a genius or a crank. You called, near the end of the episode, for input on future episodes and the remarks concerning a form of anti-foundationalism made me think back to the outstanding episode on Wilfrid Sellars and the guest you had on for that episode (indeed, I think I listened to it 3 times while reading EPM). In that vein, perhaps a revisit of Sellars would be interesting, maybe his subsequent essay ‘Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man’? (Or, for something similar but more recent, his student Robert Brandom’s Articulating Reasons).