Oliver O’Donovan on the practical character of Ethics Ethics is not distinguished from other disciplines by an “object” or “subject-matter” which defines its territory over against those of other studies of other objects. What kind of thing is this morality, of which Ethics undertakes to speak? Clearly not a thing among other things, a segmented […]
Rush Rhees on the demands and scope of Wittgenstein’s Investigations Wittgenstein did go through the [Philosophical] Investigations with me – some parts of it several times – before it was published. And although such understanding of it as I have has come more since his death, I should have understood less if I had not heard him […]
Garry Hagberg on the therapeutic character of Wittgenstein’s philosophy The analogy between philosophy and therapy is apt because the self-investigative work required to unearth the only-indirectly manifested influences on our thought, such as misleading analogies, grammatical similarities, the falsifying and oversimplifying conceptual pictures that result from these — taken together, the deep — i.e., deep-in-language — sources of the impulses […]
John Whittaker on rational proofs of God’s existence The impression that one gets from most philosophers of religion is that religious conversions might be, and perhaps should be, brought about by the justification of God’s existence on rational grounds. To me this ideal of evidentiary justification seems so far removed from the actual life of believers that […]
Peter Winch on Wittgenstein on courage in philosophy “You could attach prices to thoughts. Some cost a lot, some a little. And how does one pay for thoughts? The answer, I think, is: with courage.” [from Culture and Value, p. 52e] [Winch’s commentary:] It is striking and important that he [Wittgenstein] uses an “ethical” concept courage […]
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