Culture as a Monastic Rule
-
Lars Albinus
Abstract:
The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has taken a considerable interest in Wittgenstein’s concept of culture. The title of his book Du mußt dein Leben ändern, which is a quote from Rilke, also reflects one of Wittgenstein’s remarks, and Sloterdijk devotes a whole chapter to another quote, namely that “Culture is a monastic rule”, as Wittgenstein put it in 1948. Sloterdijk argues that Wittgenstein’s philosophy was, from the beginning, irreversibly formed by the secessionist movement in fin-de-siecle Vienna, and that he remained a cultural elitist at heart through his whole life. Thus Sloterdijk regards the concept of “language games” as ascetic instructions en miniature and reads Wittgenstein’s late philosophy as a veiled criticism of the so-called culture of his society, that is, “life forms” among ordinary language users who are blind to their own proclivities. I regard this interpretation as a gross misconception of Wittgenstein’s inclinations but also as a welcome opportunity to make some necessary distinctions between Wittgenstein’s views of culture in different phases of his philosophy.
Bibliography
Agamben; Giorgio: The Open: Man and Animal, transl. by Kevin Attell, California 2004.Search in Google Scholar
Drury, Maurice: Some Notes on Conversations with Wittgenstein, in: Rush Rhees (ed.): Recollections of Wittgenstein, Oxford 1984, 76 – 96.Search in Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel: The Use of Pleasure: The History of Sexuality: 2, transl. by Robert Hurley, London 1985.Search in Google Scholar
McDowell, John: Mind, Value, and Reality, Cambridge 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Malcolm, Norman: Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, Oxford 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Janik, Alan & Toulmin, Stephen: Wittgenstein’s Vienna, New York 1973.Search in Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren: Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter 11, København 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul A.: Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: An Elementary Exposition, Oxford 1989.Search in Google Scholar
Peter Sloterdijk: Du Musst dein Leben ändern: über Anthropotechnik, Frankfurt a.M. 2012.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Meredith: Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning: Towards a Social Conception of Mind, London/New York 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Wright, Crispin: Rails to Infinity: Essays on Themes from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, Cambridge 2001.Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Wittgenstein’s Vienna around 1900
- Wittgenstein’s Ambivalent Attitude toward Science and Culture
- Wittgenstein and the Theatre of Confession
- “What belongs to a language game is a whole culture.”
- Lebensform and “socio-cultural background”
- Culture as a Monastic Rule
- Frontverläufe in Wittgensteins Prototractatus
- Recherchen zu „Teil II“ der Philosophischen Untersuchungen und zur von Wittgenstein erstellten „C-Sammlung“ im Nachlass
- Wittgenstein’s Criticism of the “Atmosphere” Conception of Meaning in PI § 117
- Revisiting the Philosophical Investigations’ Children
- On Certainty, Epistemic Incommensurability and Epistemic Relativism
- „Das Buch ist voller Leben …“
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Wittgenstein’s Vienna around 1900
- Wittgenstein’s Ambivalent Attitude toward Science and Culture
- Wittgenstein and the Theatre of Confession
- “What belongs to a language game is a whole culture.”
- Lebensform and “socio-cultural background”
- Culture as a Monastic Rule
- Frontverläufe in Wittgensteins Prototractatus
- Recherchen zu „Teil II“ der Philosophischen Untersuchungen und zur von Wittgenstein erstellten „C-Sammlung“ im Nachlass
- Wittgenstein’s Criticism of the “Atmosphere” Conception of Meaning in PI § 117
- Revisiting the Philosophical Investigations’ Children
- On Certainty, Epistemic Incommensurability and Epistemic Relativism
- „Das Buch ist voller Leben …“
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
