Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Contest review 3: Theology After Wittgenstein

This book certainly lived up to what I had hoped it would do, i.e., introduce me gently to Wittgenstein's thought. I had already gotten some inklings through reading Ray Monk's bio while I was on jury duty. I discovered through reading this that I have already developed an affinity for the sorts of directions W was pointing in. Where this affinity comes from I would be hard pressed to say, but I know that I tend to distrust dualisms of all kinds and introspectivism where I find it. While of course things can be deceptive, normally one should expect that they are not. We can't, without risking absurdity, begin philosophical discussions as if the possibility of communication is debatable.

As I think about it, much of my affinity for this no doubt goes back to learning ethics under Brian Sayers who was well read in Neitzsche, Russell, Moore, Kiekegard and Wittgenstein. I still remember him convincing me that the mind is not really separable from the body, at least not as we ordinarily conceive of minds and bodies.

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