“Tell me," Wittgenstein once asked a friend, "why do people always say, it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round the earth rather than that the earth was rotating?" His friend replied, "Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth." Wittgenstein replied, "Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?” What would it have looked like if we looked at all (...) sciences from the viewpoint of Wittgenstein’s philosophy? Wittgenstein is undoubtedly one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. His complex body of work has been analysed by numerous scholars, from mathematicians and physicists, to philosophers, linguists, and beyond. This volume brings together some of his central perspectives as applied to the modern sciences and studies the influence they may have on the thought processes underlying science and on the world view it engenders. The contributions stem from leading scholars in philosophy, mathematics, physics, economics, psychology and human sciences; all of them have written in an accessible style that demands little specialist knowledge, whilst clearly portraying and discussing the deep issues at hand. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 67 Heft: 2 Seiten: 265-279.

In my paper I will discuss the difference between Wittgenstein’s notebooks, personal diaries and his so called diaristic remarks scattered throughout the Nachlass. This includes a distinction between his philosophical and his diaristic entries. Secondly, I will outline the editing history of Wittgenstein’s Notebooks 1914 – 1916, his Secret Diaries (Geheime Tagebücher 1914 – 1916), Culture & Value and his diaries of the 1930s (Denkbewegungen). Finally, I will focus on Wittgenstein’s coded remarks (in the wartime notebooks and in his diaristic (...) remarks found in the Nachlass) and then discuss their significance not only in terms of his personal attitude toward life, ethics and religion but also in terms of their role in the context of his philosophizing. In doing so, I will discuss the question of the extent to which Wittgenstein’s method of encoding can be seen as a means for a special type of text, conceived for a sphere not readily accessible to normal language and science – a sphere he avoided talking about in the context of strict philosophical dispute. (shrink)

Comme il l'avait déjà fait à l'époque du Tractatus logico-philosophicus, à partir des années trente, Wittgenstein a tenu un journal, composé de carnets dans lesquels il a consigné les réflexions qui nourrissaient ses recherches et ses pensées personnelles. Autour de ces notes se dessinent les aspects les plus saillants de ce qu'il appelait son " travail " et ce qu'il attendait de la philosophie. L'importance des préoccupations éthiques, esthétiques ou religieuses qui s'y expriment, et qui le rendent parfois si proche (...) de Kierkegaard, de saint Augustin ou de Tolstoï, l'acuité de ses remarques et la netteté d'une écriture qui se déploie ici au jour le jour, sans apprêt ni souci de composition, ne font pas seulement de ces Carnets de Cambridge et de Skjolden un document exceptionnel; elles font jouer à plein la complexité et les contrastes qui appartiennent à son œuvre, en nous livrant pour ainsi dire à nu les tensions, l'aspiration à la clarté, autant que le désir d'abandon qui n'ont cessé de hanter sa pensée. J.-P. C. (shrink)