Ethics and the tractatus: A resolute failure

Philosophy 79 (1):33-55 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The paper assumes for its starting point the basic correctness of the so-called “resolute” reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus, a reading first developed by Cora Diamond and James Conant. The main part of the paper concerns the consequences this interpretation will have for our understanding of Wittgenstein's well-known remark in a letter to a prospective publisher that the point or aim of his book was an ethical one. I first give a sketch of what, given the committments of the resolute reading, the ethical point of the book will be, and then argue that given these committments and Wittgenstein's own philosophical biases at the time he wrote the Tractatus, the book cannot serve the ethical purpose for which it was written.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The ethical residue of language in Levinas and early Wittgenstein.Søren Overgaard - 2007 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 33 (2):223-249.
Contextualism and Nonsense in Wittgenstein's Tractatus.Edmund Dain - 2006 - South African Journal of Philosophy 25 (2):91-101.
The Method of the Tractatus.Nikolay Milkov - 2003 - Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 11:139-41.
The New Wittgenstein (review). [REVIEW]Anton Alterman - 2001 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (3):456-457.
Must we show what we cannot say?James Conant - 1989 - In R. Fleming & M. Payne (eds.), The Senses of Stanley Cavell. Bucknell. pp. 242--83.
The new Wittgenstein: A critique.Ian Proops - 2001 - European Journal of Philosophy 9 (3):375–404.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
89 (#175,742)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Kevin Cahill
University of Bergen

References found in this work

Was he trying to whistle it?Peter Ms Hacker - 2000 - In Alice Crary & Rupert J. Read (eds.), The New Wittgenstein. Routledge. pp. 353-388.
Losing your concepts.Cora Diamond - 1988 - Ethics 98 (2):255-277.
On Trying to be Resolute: A Response to Kremer on the Tractatus.Peter M. Sullivan - 2002 - European Journal of Philosophy 10 (1):43-78.

Add more references