Cogency v2 n2

Wittgenstein and the Logic of Deep Disagreement / D. M. GODDEN & W. H. BRENNER
Isn’t “defect” a family resemblance term? And aren’t “neurophilosophers”
such as Paul Churchland trying to persuade us to make one member of the
family lord it over the others? But could we “find our feet” with people who
actually used a language that was “reformed” in a way they recommend, i.e.,
with all the indeterminacy eliminated from our “psychological” concepts?–
“Concepts with fixed limits would demand a uniformity of behavior” (RPP-
II § 683). And do we really want that? 30
“Deep Disquietudes”
When we do philosophy we are like savages, primitive
people, who hear the expressions of civilized
men, put a false interpretation on them, and then
draw the queerest conclusions from it. (Ludwig
Wittgenstein, PI § 194)
[As reported by Moore, Wittgenstein] said that what
he was doing was a “new subject” … [and] that
though what he was doing was certainly different
from what, e.g., Plato or Berkeley had done, yet
people might feel that it “takes the place of” what they
had done – might be inclined to say “This is what I
really wanted.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein, PO, p. 113)
The traditional “problems of philosophy” are often thought to generate the
deepest of deep disagreements. Yet Wittgenstein would persuade philosophers
to adopt a fresh conception of the ‘depth’ of these problems. On
Wittgenstein’s view, philosophical problems “have the character of depth.
They are deep disquietudes; their roots are as deep in us as the forms of our
language and their significance is as great as the importance of our language”
(PI § 111).
Wittgenstein suggested that philosophical problems call for a “grammatical
investigation” – one that sheds light on the problems by clearing away
misunderstandings concerning the use of words, misunderstandings
“caused, among other things, by certain analogies between the forms of expression
in different regions of language” (PI § 90). An example of an analogy
that appears to have captivated and mislead more than one philosopher
is the comparison of certain knowledge with a building or tower resting on
30
For more on this, consult RPP-II, LWPP-II, and PI, pp. 223-29.
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