Wittgenstein's Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry

271 Pages·2021·2.439 MB·English

by  James C. Klagge

Wittgenstein’s Artillery

Wittgenstein’s Artillery
Philosophy as Poetry
James C. Klagge
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2021 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Klagge, James Carl, 1954– author.
Title: Wittgenstein’s artillery : philosophy as poetry / James C. Klagge. Description:
Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020036778 | ISBN 9780262045834 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889–1951. | Wittgenstein, Ludwig,
1889– 1951— Literary style.
Classification: LCC B3376.W564 K533 2021 | DDC 192—dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2020036778
publication supported by a grant from
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
as part of the Urban Haven Project
I don’t try to make you believe something you don’t believe, but to make you do
something you won’t do.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1931
I believe I summed up where I stand in relation to philosophy when I said: one
should really only do philosophy as poetry.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1933 or 1934
Quite different artillery is needed here from anything I am in a position to muster.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1947
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: Wittgenstein at War 1
1 Wittgenstein and His Audience 7
2 Wittgenstein and His Students 25
3 Wittgenstein at Work 37
4 Wittgenstein’s Methods and Aims 53
5 Wittgenstein and Poetry 69
6 Wittgenstein’s Poems 89
7 Doing Philosophy as Poetry 145
Notes 161
Bibliography 229
Index 249

Preface
In this book, I tell a story about how Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1 951) came
to care about the impact of his ideas on his students and readers and how
he tried a “poetic” style of doing philosophy that could lead to the kinds of
changes he sought. Although he did not ultimately think he was successful
using this style, I examine various examples of this poetic style of writing
that might serve Wittgenstein’s purposes. This is what I call Wittgenstein’s
“artillery.”
In writing this book, I have drawn on and significantly expanded earlier
publications. Chapter 1 is based on “Wittgenstein and His Audience: Eso-
tericist or Evangelist?” in N. Venturinha, ed., The Textual Genesis of Wittgen-
stein’s Philosophical Investigations (Routledge, 2013, pp. 52–6 4). Chapter 2
is based on “Wittgenstein and His Students: 1929–1 933,” in D. Stern, ed.,
Wittgenstein in the 1930s: Between the Tractatus and the Investigations (Cam-
bridge University Press, 2018, pp. 109–1 22). Chapter 3 is based on “Witt-
genstein, Frazer and Temperament,” in Lars Albinus, Josef G. F. Rothhaupt,
and Aidan Seery, eds., Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Frazer: The Text and the Mat-
ter (de Gruyter, 2016, pp. 233–2 48). I thank the editors and publishers for
permission to draw on these works. In each case I have found a good deal
to add. Chapters 5 and 6 were given trial runs at the Seventh and Eighth
Regional Working Conferences on Wittgenstein, held in Morgantown, West
Virginia, in October 2016, and Lexington, Virginia, in April 2018, respec-
tively. I owe a great deal to this loyal band of Wittgenstein fans who live
in my region of the country. Finally, I thank Nadia Hijab for permission to
quote from her father’s unpublished work.
I thank three anonymous referees from MIT Press, as well as those who
have commented on earlier versions of particular chapters or the whole