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Wittgenstein and Schlegel on Forms of Life: Talking To or Past Each Other

  • Mate Penava and Jure Zovko
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Wittgenstein and Classical German Philosophy
This chapter is in the book Wittgenstein and Classical German Philosophy

Abstract

Wittgenstein’s later philosophy is often connected with the ideas held by German philosophers such as Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt. Nonetheless, there is a lack of comparisons between Wittgenstein and Friedrich Schlegel, a prominent figure of the Romantic movement, in secondary literature. Notable exceptions include Zovko (2002), Cavell (2004), and Gorodeisky (2014). This chapter aims to show that there are considerable similarities between Schlegel’s ideas and those of the later Wittgenstein, with a special emphasis on their views concerning language and its inherent intersubjectivity. In both philosophers’ work, this topic is inseparable from talking about forms of life. Consequently, this notion will be examined in detail, bearing in mind that Schlegel was one of the first to use the term Lebensform. As these approaches share certain prominent features, Schlegel should be put alongside the three above-mentioned philosophers as a precursor of Wittgenstein’s ideas about the cultural nature of language.

Abstract

Wittgenstein’s later philosophy is often connected with the ideas held by German philosophers such as Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt. Nonetheless, there is a lack of comparisons between Wittgenstein and Friedrich Schlegel, a prominent figure of the Romantic movement, in secondary literature. Notable exceptions include Zovko (2002), Cavell (2004), and Gorodeisky (2014). This chapter aims to show that there are considerable similarities between Schlegel’s ideas and those of the later Wittgenstein, with a special emphasis on their views concerning language and its inherent intersubjectivity. In both philosophers’ work, this topic is inseparable from talking about forms of life. Consequently, this notion will be examined in detail, bearing in mind that Schlegel was one of the first to use the term Lebensform. As these approaches share certain prominent features, Schlegel should be put alongside the three above-mentioned philosophers as a precursor of Wittgenstein’s ideas about the cultural nature of language.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. List of Abbreviations of Wittgenstein’s Works IX
  5. Notes on Authors XI
  6. Introduction: Wittgenstein and Classical German Philosophy – Logic, Language, Life 1
  7. I Logic
  8. Differences in Form, Identities in Content – Wittgenstein and Hegel on Two Complementary Aspects of Meaning 13
  9. What Might Hegel and Wittgenstein Have Seen in Goethe’s Colour Theory? 35
  10. Shining and Showing 53
  11. Two Faces of Contradiction 81
  12. Infinity as the Form of the Finite: Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Remarks, XII and the Notion of the Infinite in the Critique of Pure Reason 101
  13. II Language
  14. Talking is Lying: On One Suspicious Metaphor 125
  15. Rhetoric, Negativity, and Philosophy of Language – Hegel’s Sophists as Early Wittgensteinians 137
  16. Reflections on Rule-Following 147
  17. Wittgenstein’s Übersichtliche Darstellung and Hegel’s Speculative Philosophy 167
  18. Wittgenstein and Schlegel on Forms of Life: Talking To or Past Each Other 183
  19. III Life
  20. Hegel, the Pragmatic Turn, and the Later Wittgenstein 201
  21. Following the Rule Without Interpreting It? – Gadamarian and Kantian Revision of Brandom’s Solution to the Wittgensteinian Problem 213
  22. Following a Rule Blindly: Hegel and Wittgenstein on the Immediacy of Habit 225
  23. Wittgenstein and Critical Theory – From ‘Sub Specie Aeterni’ to the ‘Entanglement in Our Rules’ – Wittgenstein, Adorno, Marx 255
  24. Wittgenstein and Hegel on Art and the Everyday 277
  25. Subject Index 297
  26. Person Index 307
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110698497-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. List of Abbreviations of Wittgenstein’s Works IX
  5. Notes on Authors XI
  6. Introduction: Wittgenstein and Classical German Philosophy – Logic, Language, Life 1
  7. I Logic
  8. Differences in Form, Identities in Content – Wittgenstein and Hegel on Two Complementary Aspects of Meaning 13
  9. What Might Hegel and Wittgenstein Have Seen in Goethe’s Colour Theory? 35
  10. Shining and Showing 53
  11. Two Faces of Contradiction 81
  12. Infinity as the Form of the Finite: Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Remarks, XII and the Notion of the Infinite in the Critique of Pure Reason 101
  13. II Language
  14. Talking is Lying: On One Suspicious Metaphor 125
  15. Rhetoric, Negativity, and Philosophy of Language – Hegel’s Sophists as Early Wittgensteinians 137
  16. Reflections on Rule-Following 147
  17. Wittgenstein’s Übersichtliche Darstellung and Hegel’s Speculative Philosophy 167
  18. Wittgenstein and Schlegel on Forms of Life: Talking To or Past Each Other 183
  19. III Life
  20. Hegel, the Pragmatic Turn, and the Later Wittgenstein 201
  21. Following the Rule Without Interpreting It? – Gadamarian and Kantian Revision of Brandom’s Solution to the Wittgensteinian Problem 213
  22. Following a Rule Blindly: Hegel and Wittgenstein on the Immediacy of Habit 225
  23. Wittgenstein and Critical Theory – From ‘Sub Specie Aeterni’ to the ‘Entanglement in Our Rules’ – Wittgenstein, Adorno, Marx 255
  24. Wittgenstein and Hegel on Art and the Everyday 277
  25. Subject Index 297
  26. Person Index 307
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