How to Read Wittgenstein’s Later Works with Gada-merian Ontological Hermeneutics on the Subject of Learning Color Concepts?

Year 2014, , 49 - 62, 30.12.2014

Abdullah Başaran

https://doi.org/10.18491/bijop.83370

Abstract

Even though there is an ineluctable abyss between Analytic and Continental Philosophy, it is not hard to argue that in his later works Ludwig Wittgenstein draws a closer philosophical attitude to the latter in terms of that the notions developed by him, such as language-games, family resemblances, meaning-in-use or rule-following, apart from his earlier nomological approach to language, leave room for various understandings and uncertainty in language. In the present work, my primary task is to concentrate on the close relationship between the Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblances and Gadamer’s idea of the fusion of horizons. But both philosophers, coincide in criticizing the authority of the Cartesian subject and private language and in allowing different understandings and uncertainty in language. Starting from this point of view, the linguistic turn, I will turn my remarks on the question how we learn color concepts since the structure of these concepts radically differs from the words that are able to subject to ostensive definitions. This last section will also offer a hermeneutical reading of Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblances.

Keywords

Wittgenstein, Gadamer, color concepts, language-games, hermeneutics.

References

• Allison, D. B. (1978). Derrida and Wittgenstein: Playing The Game. Research in Phenomenology, 8 (1), 93-109.
• Cavell, S. (2000). Excursus on Wittgenstein's Vision of Language. The New Wittgenstein (eds. A. M. Crary & R. J. Read). London: Routledge.
• Forster, M. (2013). Wittgenstein on Family Resemblance Concepts. Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: A Critical Guide (ed. A. Ahmed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Gadamer, H.-G. (2001). Gadamer in Conversation: Reflections and Commentary (ed. R. E. Palmer). New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Gadamer, H.-G. (2013). Truth and Method (trans. J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Heidegger, M. (2008). Being and Time (trans. J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson). New York: Harper Perennial.
• Horn, P. R. (2005). Gadamer and Wittgenstein on the Unity of Language: Reality and Discourse without Metaphysics. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate.
• Lawn, C. & Keane, N. (2011). The Gadamer's Dictionary. New York: Continuum.
• Lawn, C. (2006a). Gadamer: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum.
• Lawn, C. (2006b). Wittgenstein and Gadamer: Towards a Post-Analytic Philosophy of Language. London: Continuum.
• Linge, D. E. (1976). Editor’s Introduction. Philosophical Hermeneutics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Malcolm, N. (2001). Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• McGinn, M. (2013). The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. New York: Routledge.
• Stern, D. G. (2004). Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: An Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Von Wright, G. H. (2001). A Biographical Sketch. Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Wittgenstein, L. (1968). Philosophical Investigations (trans. G. E. M. Anscombe). New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Wittgenstein, L. (1977). Remarks on Colour (trans. L. L. McAlister & M. Schattle). Blackwell Publishing.
• Wittgenstein, L. (2009a). On Certainty (ed. L. Kaeppel). Major Works: Selected Philosophical Writings. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
• Wittgenstein, L. (2009b). The Blue Book (ed. L. Kaeppel). Major Works: Selected Philosophical Writings. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
• Wittgenstein, L. (2009c). The Brown Book (ed. L. Kaeppel). Major Works: Selected Philosophical Writings. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.