Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letter and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In 1928, Wittgenstein took on a project for a short time which he himself called “phenomenological language”. Discovering some flaws in Tractatus as a whole (including the problem of color-incompatibility), he begin to think of a new symbolism and thereby to remedy the flaws. However, after a while he gave up the project and considered it impossible or at least unnecessary. In this article, we try to answer some important questions in this regard: what was the phenomenological language? Where did it come from? Why did he address it and give it up? And what did he introduce for substitution of the old project? The claim is that Wittgenstein used “phenomenological language” in two senses; first as the mere description of a phenomenon (vs. physical ordinary language) and second as the study of possibilities of meaningfulness. The origin of the first one goes back to views of theoretical physicists. One of the main reasons to launch this project was that Wittgenstein wanted to explain the color-incompatibility problem threatening the truth-functional logic of Tractatus. Wittgenstein was seeking a complementary notation and thought that the solution lied in the “logical investigation of phenomena themselves”. He made some preliminary suggestions (e.g. importing numbers in the form of propositions), but the more he went on, the more he saw the use of terms and concepts of ordinary language as inevitable. Finally, he discarded the project. Instead of “analyzing phenomenon”, he now spoke of “analyzing grammar”, whose goal was to separate what is essential from what is inessential in our language.

Keywords

Anscombe, G. E. M. (1963). An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (2. ed.). New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Baz, A. (2018). “Phenomenology, Language, and the Limitations of the Wittgensteinian Grammatical Investigation”. Wittgenstein and Phenomenology. Kuusela, O & Ometiță, M. (eds.). New York: Routledge. 116-40.
Blank, A. (2002). “Wittgenstein's Tractatus and the Problem of a Phenomenological Language”. Philosophia 29 (1-4). 329-31.
Boltzman, L. (1905). „Über die Entwicklung der Methoden der theoretischen Physik in neuerer Zeit“, Populäre Schriften, Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosios Barth. 198-227.
Copi, I. M. & Beard, R. W. (1966). Essays on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. New York: The MacMillan Company.
Dobler, T. (2011). Wittgenstein on Grammar and Grammatical Method (a PhD Dissertation in University of East Anglia).
Engelmann, M. L. (2013). Wittgenstein's Philosophical Development: Phenomenology, Grammar, Method and the Anthropological View. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Engelmann, M. L. (2017). “What Does a Phenomenological Language Do? (Revisiting ‘Some Remarks on Logical Form’ in Its Context)”. Colours in the Development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy. Marcos Silva and others (ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. 95-125.
Gier, N. (1981). Wittgenstein and Phenomenology: A Comparative Study of the Later Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Gier, N. (1990). “Wittgenstein's Phenomenology Revisited”. Philosophy Today, 34 (3). 273-88.
Glock, H-J. (1996). Wittgenstein Dictionary. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
Glock, H-J. (2005). “Ramsey and Wittgenstein: Mutual Influences”. F. P. Ramsey: Critical Reassessments. Frápolli, M. J. (ed.). London: Continuum. 41-69.
Hintikka, J. & Hintikka M. B. (1986). Investigating Wittgenstein. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Hintikka, J. (1996). Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half-Truths. Springer: Netherlands.
Husserl, E. (1968). Phänomenologische Psychologie: Vorlesungen Sommersemester 1925. Herausgegeben von Walter Biemel. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.
Kuusela, O. & Ometiță, M. (eds.). (2018). Wittgenstein and Phenomenology. New York: Routledge.
McManus, D. (2018) “Phenomenology, Logic, and Liberation from Grammar”. Wittgenstein and Phenomenology. Kuusela, O & Ometiță, M. (eds.). New York: Routledge. 47-70.
Medina, J. (2002). The Unity of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy (Necessity, Intelligibility, and Normativity). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Monk, R. (2014). “The Temptations of Phenomenology: Wittgenstein, the Synthetic a Priori and the ‘Analytic a Posteriori”. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 22 (3). 312-340.
Munson, Th. (1962). “Wittgenstein's Phenomenology”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 23 (1). 37-50.
Noë, R. A. (1994). “Wittgenstein, Phenomenology and What It Makes Sense to Say”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 54 (1). 1-42.
Park, B-Ch. (1998). Phenomenological Aspects of Wittgenstein's Philosophy. Springer: Netherlands.
Ramsey, F. P. (1950). “Critical Notice of L. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1923)”. The Foundation of Mathematics and other Logical Essays. Braithwaite R. B. (ed.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.. 270-86.
Reeder, H. P. (1989). “Wittgenstein Never was a Phenomenologist”. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 20 (3). 257-76.
Ricreur, P. (1976). “Husserl and Wittgenstein on Language”. Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology. Durfee, H. A. (ed.). Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff. 87-95.
Rump, J. M. (2013). The Phenomenological Dimension of the Theory of Meaning: A Critical Inquiry Through Husserl and Wittgenstein (a PhD Dissertation in Emory University).
Soulez, A. (1989). “Wittgenstein and Phenomenology or Two Languages for One Wittgenstein”. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 33/34. 157-83.
Spiegelberg, H. (1968). “The Puzzle of Wittgenstein's Phänomenologie (1929-?) (with Supplement 1979)”. The Context of the Phenomenological Movement (1981). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. 202-28.
Stern, D. G. (1991). “The ‘Middle Wittgenstein’- From Logical Atomism to Practical Holism”. Synthese, 87. 203-26.
Stern, D. G. (2007). “Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Physicalism: A Reassessment”. The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism. Richardson A. & Uebel Th. (eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press. 305-31.
Van Peursen, C. A. (1959). “Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Wittgenstein”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 20 (2). 181-97.
Wittgenstein, L. (1929). “Some Remarks on Logical Form”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 9, Knowledge, Experience and Realism. 162-71. (RLF)
Wittgenstein, L. (1954). “Wittgenstein's Lectures in 1930-33” (from the Notes of G. E. Moore, II). Mind (new series). 251. 289-316. (M)
Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Wittgenstein's Lectures, Cambridge, 1930-32 (from the Notes of John King and Desmond Lee). The University of Chicago Press. (LWL)
Wittgenstein, L. (1986). Wittgenstein Conversations 1949-1951. Bouwsma O. K., edited with an introduction by Craft, J. L. & Hustwit, R. E.. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. (WC)
Wittgenstein, L. (1998). The Blue and Brown Books. Oxford: Blackwell. (BB)
Wittgenstein, L. (2002). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, with an Introduction by Bertrand Russell. Pears, D. F. & McGuiness, B. F. (trs.). London: Routledge. (T)
Wittgenstein, L. (2004). The Big Typescript. Luckhardt, C.G. & Aue, M.A.E. (trs.). Oxford: Blackwell. (BT)
Wittgenstein, L. (2013). Philosophische Grammatik (WA B. 4) Herausgegeben von R. Rhees. Frankfurt am Main: Surkamp. (PG)
Wittgenstein, L. (2015). Ludwig Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis (Gespräche, aufgezeichnet von Friedrich Waismann). Aus dem Nachlaß herausgegeben von McGuiness, B. F. (WA B. 3). Frankfurt am Main: Surkamp. (WWK)
Wittgenstein, L. (2015). Philosophische Bemerkungen (WA B. 2) Aus dem Nachlaß herausgegeben von R. Rhees. Frankfurt am Main: Surkamp. (PB)
Wittgenstein, L. (2015). Werkausgabe, B. 8 (Bemerkungen über die Farben, Vermischte Bemerkungen und ...). Surkamp: Frankfurt am Main. (WA)
Wittgenstein, L. (2015). Wittgenstein’s Manuscripts, in The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB). Available on http://wab.uib.no/ (MS)