M. C Mykel's List: Nihilism

• 2.3 The Nature of Philosophy

    

    Accordingly, "the word ‘philosophy’ must mean something which stands above or below, but not beside the natural sciences" (TLP 4.111). Not surprisingly, then, "most of the propositions and questions to be found in philosophical works are not false but nonsensical" (TLP 4.003). Is, then, philosophy doomed to be nonsense (unsinnig), or, at best, senseless (sinnlos) when it does logic, but, in any case, meaningless? What is left for the philosopher to do, if traditional, or even revolutionary, propositions of metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and ethics cannot be formulated in a sensical manner? The reply to these two questions is found in Wittgenstein's characterization of philosophy: philosophy is not a theory, or a doctrine, but rather an activity. It is an activity of clarification (of thoughts), and more so, of critique (of language). Described by Wittgenstein, it should be the philosopher's routine activity: to react or respond to the traditional philosophers' musings by showing them where they go wrong, using the tools provided by logical analysis. In other words, by showing them that (some of) their propositions are nonsense.

    
• "Regular" language-games, such as the astonishing list provided in PI 23 (which includes, e.g., reporting an event, speculating about an event, forming and testing a hypothesis, making up a story, reading it, play- acting, singing catches, guessing riddles, making a joke, translating, asking, thanking, and so on), bring out the openness of our possibilities in using language and in describing it.

• 3.7 The Nature of Philosophy

    

    The later Wittgenstein holds, as he did in the Tractatus, that philosophers do not — or should not — supply a theory, neither do they provide explanations. "Philosophy simply puts everything before us, nor deduces anything. — Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain" (PI 126). The anti-theoretical stance is reminiscent of the early Wittgenstein, but there are manifest differences. Although the Tractatus precludes philosophical theories, it does construct a systematic edifice which results in the general form of the proposition, all the while relying on strict formal logic; the Investigations points out the therapeutic non-dogmatic nature of philosophy, verily instructing philosophers in the ways of therapy. "The work of the philosopher consists in assembling reminders for a particular purpose" (PI 127). Working with reminders and series of examples, different problems are solved. Unlike the Tractatus which advanced one philosophical method, in the Investigations "there is not a philosophical method, though there are indeed methods, like different therapies" (PI 133). This is directly related to Wittgenstein's eschewal of the logical form or of any a-priori generalization that can be discovered or made in philosophy. Trying to advance such general theses is a temptation which lures philosophers; but the real task of philosophy is both to make us aware of the temptation and to show us how to overcome it. Consequently "a philosophical problem has the form: ‘I don't know my way about.’" (PI 123), and hence the aim of philosophy is "to shew the fly out of the fly-bottle" (PI 309).

1 more annotation...

• Stanford Encyclopedia article on Wittgenstein.  Very well constructed and organized even though no easier to understnad.  (Well , a little easier).  Must be read a couple of times at least  but this is a very good resource or all sorts of philosophy.
  - M. C Mykel on 2006-12-10