The Threat of Privacy in Wittgenstein’s Investigations: Kripke vs. Cavell
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Jônadas Techio
Abstract
Most readers of the Investigations take skepticism as a target of Wittgenstein’s remarks, something to be refuted by means of a clear grasp of our criteria. Stanley Cavell was the first to challenge that consensual view by reminding us that our criteria are constantly open to skeptical repudiation, hence that privacy is a standing human possibility. In an apparently similar vein, Saul Kripke has argued that a skeptical paradox concerning rules and meaning is the central problem of the Investigations – and one that receives a skeptical solution. Following the orthodoxy, however, Kripke does not take privacy as a real threat but instead reads Wittgenstein as offering an argument against its very possibility. This paper offers a critical assessment of Kripke’s and Cavell’s readings, and concludes by delineating an understanding of our linguistic practices that acknowledges the seriousness of skepticism while avoiding the kind of evasion shared by Kripke and the orthodoxy, enabling us to see agreement and meaning as continual tasks whose failure is imbued with high existential costs.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Titelseiten
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Inhalt / Table of Contents
- Articles
- Wittgenstein and Piccoli
- Wittgenstein’s Four-Stroke Faces and the Idea of Visual Philosophy
- Wittgenstein on Understanding Religious Beliefs
- The Threat of Privacy in Wittgenstein’s Investigations: Kripke vs. Cavell
- What is it that Wittgenstein denies in his philosophy of psychology?
- Spezialsektion: Wittgenstein über das Psychische
- Spezialsektion: Wittgenstein über das Psychische
- Einführung
- Wittgenstein und die Begriffe des Psychischen bei Hegel
- „Eine irreführende Parallele“
- „Denken wir wieder an die Intention, Schach zu spielen.“
- Nicht einmal ein Etwas
- „Wenn sie vergeht, dann war es nicht die rechte Liebe.“
- „12 × 12 = 144“
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Gorazd Andrejč: Wittgenstein and Interreligious Disagreement. A Philosophical and Theological Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2016. xii + 278 pages, $69.99 (Hardback), ISBN 978-1-137-50307-7
- Thomas D. Carroll: Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2016, x + 209 pages, £59.99 (Paperback), ISBN 978-1-349-48827-8
- Christian Erbacher (ed.): Friedrich August von Hayek’s Draft Biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Text and Its History. Leiden: mentis Verlag 2019, 88 pages, 25,13 € (Paperback), ISBN 978-3-95743-157-8
- Cora Diamond: Reading Wittgenstein with Anscombe, Going On to Ethics. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 2019, 331 pages, $39.95 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-0-674-05168-3
- Sára Bereczki: Wittgensteins Sprachspiel und die Spieltheorie. Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie und ihre Relevanz für das Verständnis ökonomischer Rationalität. München: Herbert Utz Verlag 2018, 220 Seiten, 59,00 € (Paperback), ISBN 978-3-8316-4706-4
- Wayne Waxman: A Guide to Kant’s Psychologism – via Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Wittgenstein. New York: Routledge 2019, 351 pages, $115.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-367-14111-0
- Guy Axtell: Problems of Religious Luck. Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement. Lanham: Lexington Books 2019, 290 pages, $95.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-1-4985-5017-8
- Back matter
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Titelseiten
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Inhalt / Table of Contents
- Articles
- Wittgenstein and Piccoli
- Wittgenstein’s Four-Stroke Faces and the Idea of Visual Philosophy
- Wittgenstein on Understanding Religious Beliefs
- The Threat of Privacy in Wittgenstein’s Investigations: Kripke vs. Cavell
- What is it that Wittgenstein denies in his philosophy of psychology?
- Spezialsektion: Wittgenstein über das Psychische
- Spezialsektion: Wittgenstein über das Psychische
- Einführung
- Wittgenstein und die Begriffe des Psychischen bei Hegel
- „Eine irreführende Parallele“
- „Denken wir wieder an die Intention, Schach zu spielen.“
- Nicht einmal ein Etwas
- „Wenn sie vergeht, dann war es nicht die rechte Liebe.“
- „12 × 12 = 144“
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Gorazd Andrejč: Wittgenstein and Interreligious Disagreement. A Philosophical and Theological Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2016. xii + 278 pages, $69.99 (Hardback), ISBN 978-1-137-50307-7
- Thomas D. Carroll: Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2016, x + 209 pages, £59.99 (Paperback), ISBN 978-1-349-48827-8
- Christian Erbacher (ed.): Friedrich August von Hayek’s Draft Biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Text and Its History. Leiden: mentis Verlag 2019, 88 pages, 25,13 € (Paperback), ISBN 978-3-95743-157-8
- Cora Diamond: Reading Wittgenstein with Anscombe, Going On to Ethics. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 2019, 331 pages, $39.95 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-0-674-05168-3
- Sára Bereczki: Wittgensteins Sprachspiel und die Spieltheorie. Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie und ihre Relevanz für das Verständnis ökonomischer Rationalität. München: Herbert Utz Verlag 2018, 220 Seiten, 59,00 € (Paperback), ISBN 978-3-8316-4706-4
- Wayne Waxman: A Guide to Kant’s Psychologism – via Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Wittgenstein. New York: Routledge 2019, 351 pages, $115.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-367-14111-0
- Guy Axtell: Problems of Religious Luck. Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement. Lanham: Lexington Books 2019, 290 pages, $95.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-1-4985-5017-8
- Back matter
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
