M. C Mykel's List: Nihilism

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).