DOCSLIB.ORG

Linguistic Scepticism in Mauthner's Philosophy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Linguistic Scepticism in Mauthner's Philosophy LiberaPisano Misunderstanding Metaphors: Linguistic ScepticisminMauthner’s Philosophy Nous sommes tous dans un désert. Personne ne comprend personne. Gustave Flaubert¹ This essayisanoverview of Fritz Mauthner’slinguistic scepticism, which, in my view, represents apowerful hermeneutic category of philosophical doubts about the com- municative,epistemological, and ontological value of language. In order to shed light on the main features of Mauthner’sthought, Idrawattention to his long-stand- ing dialogue with both the sceptical tradition and philosophyoflanguage. This con- tribution has nine short sections: the first has an introductory function and illus- tratesseveral aspectsoflinguistic scepticism in the history of philosophy; the second offers acontextualisation of Mauthner’sphilosophyoflanguage; the remain- der present abroad examination of the main features of Mauthner’sthought as fol- lows: the impossibility of knowledge that stems from aradicalisationofempiricism; the coincidencebetween wordand thought,thinkingand speaking;the notion of use, the relevanceoflinguistic habits,and the utopia of communication; the decep- tive metaphors at the root of an epoché of meaning;the new task of philosophyasan exercise of liberation against the limits of language; the controversial relationship between Judaism and scepticism; and the mystical silence as an extreme conse- quence of his thought.² Mauthnerturns scepticism into aform of life and philosophy into acritique of language, and he inauguratesanew approach that is traceable in manyGerman—Jewish thinkers of the earlytwentieth century as such as Landauer This verse of Flaubert is quoted by Mauthner;cf. Fritz Mauthner, Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache, nd edition, vols. (Stuttgart and Berlin: J.G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung, ): I, . It is worth sayingafew wordsabout the peculiar conception of mysticism—so called “neue Mys- tik”—that was developed in Germanyatthe turn of the twentieth century by poets and writers as Ju- lius and Heinrich Hart,Wilhelm Bölsche, WillyPastor,Rainer Maria Rilke, AlfredMombert,Bruno Wille and others.This new kind of mysticism does not deal with the traditional idea of amystical union between God and soul, but rather with an awarefeelingofconnection between the individual and the community,the present and the past.This kind of secularised mysticism combines aestheti- cal-linguistic aspects—it is not by chancethat most of these authors were writers and poets—with a political and social idea of regeneration of humankind.Cf. Walther Hoffmann, “Neue Mystik,” in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart,eds.Friedrich Michael Schiele and Leopold Scharnack, vol. (Tübingen: Mohr, ): –;Uwe Spörl, Gottlose Mystikinder deutschen Literatur um die Jahr- hundertwende (Paderborn: Schöningh, ); Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf, Mystik der Moderne. Die vi- sionäreÄsthetikder deutschen Literatur im .Jahrhundert (Stuttgart: Metzler ); Anna Wolko- wicz, Mystiker der Revolution. Der utopische Diskurs um die Jahrhundertwende (Warsaw: WUW, ). DOI 10.1515/9783110501728-007, ©2016 Libera Pisano, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs3.0 License. 96 LiberaPisano and Wittgenstein. My goal is to show how the practical aim of Mauthner’s logos-scep- ticism,i.e., liberation from the illusions of words, is in line with the therapeutic value of ancient scepticism and, moreover,his mystic silence—as the extreme conse- quence of aradical mistrust of language—is amodern(and tragic) achievement of ancient ataraxia. Philosophy of LanguageorLinguistic Scepticism? Linguistic scepticism could be broadlydefined as adiscussion about languageand its limit,which constitutes one of the most extensively discussed problems in Wes- tern philosophy. Even if this binomial is not as common in the history of scepticism, it’sworth analysingbecause on the one hand,itisthe expression of aradical and paradoxical form of scepticism, which concerns language, seen as adeceptive tool at the root of human knowledge and as the onlymedium by which we can develop asceptical enquiry; on the other hand, this sceptical enquiry of languagespans the entire history of philosophy, which—starting from ancientGreece—has always mis- trusted vocal expressions and the articulated thought.³ However,if—accordingtoAristotle—philosophybegins with wonder,one can say that philosophyoflanguagearisesfrom doubts about languageand its communica- tive,epistemological, and ontological value.⁴ To sum up, the main problems are as the following:the main targetofcommunicative doubtconsists of the assumption that there is an isomorphism between reality and language, which constitutes the basis for the communication; in fact,linguistic referencetothe world is possible onlyifreality and languagehaveananalogical structure;ifnot,the latter is only an obstacle to knowledge.Epistemological doubtrefers to the verifiability of state- ments through the connection between subjectand predicate, which should be proved in order to have knowledge;⁵ ontologicaldoubt dealswith the power of the wordand its conformity to the essence of the object it signifies,faced with the so- called ‘archaic fusion’⁶ of wordand thing and the question of the correctness of names, which is connected to the long-standing juxtaposition of fusei–thesei,i.e. This linguistic-sceptical–attitude is related to the etymology of the word ‘theory’,which comes from the Greek theorein—‘to consider,tospeculate, to look at’—,which is connected to sight— horáō—and not to the hearingthat is the sense of language par excellence. Cf. Adriana Cavarero, A più voci. Filosofia dell’espressione vocale (Milano:Feltrinelli, ): –. Questionableisthe position of Weiler,who sawthe critique of languageonlyasapeculiar argu- ment of scepticism, from Sextus Empiricus to Hume. See Gershon Weiler, Mauthner’sCritique of Lan- guage (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, ): . This is the logos apophantikos (apophantic speech) of Aristotle that is not the task of languagein general, but apeculiar form of logos semantikos,which could also be logos praktikos and logos poie- tikos. Cf. Aristotle, On Interpretation,trans. Ella M. Edghill, in TheBasic WorksofAristotle,ed. Richard McKeon (New York: Random House, ): ch. ff. Cf. Guido Calogero, Storia della logica antica. Logica arcaica (Bari: Laterza, ): –. Misunderstanding Metaphors 97 the debate about the relationship between sound and meaning as occurringbynat- ure or by arbitrary negotiation.⁷ Traces of this discussion can be found throughout the history of philosophy, combined with other issues such as the origin of language, the heterogeneity of languages, the possibility of translation, the correspondence be- tween voices and meaning, and so on.⁸ However,inthe history of Western metaphysics,languagewas always treated as asecondary subject or as an insurmountable obstacle to epistemology. With the ex- ception of Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), it was onlyinthe nineteenth century that the question of language—thanks to the works of Hamann, Herder,and Humboldt— did become acentral philosophicalsubject by itself, to be investigated in all its nuances.Among the philosophersoflanguage, Fritz Mauthner(1849–1923)was cer- tainlythe precursor of the linguistic turn of the twentieth century, even if he was for manyyears alargely forgotten figure. Mauthner’sthoughtisvisible in the debate on the role of languagesupported by Neogrammatical School of Hermann Paul (1846–1921), who offered aradical empiri- cist approach to languagebyasserting that there are onlyindividual speech-acts.⁹ Moreover,the context in which we should locate Mauthner’sscepticism is the so called Sprachkrise,acomplex phenomenon of linguistic critique diffused in the phi- losophical and literarydebate among German-speaking thinkers,poets, and intellec- tuals before World WarI,¹⁰whose works consist in a ‘provingground for world As is commonknowledge,this was one of the most discussed issues in the theory of language: from Plato’s Cratylus,Aristotle, Stoicisms,and Sextus Empiricus,passingthroughthe Middle Ages, the Baroque,and Romanticism, up until the twentieth century,whenSaussurestated that language is an arbitrary signand thereisnonatural link between signifier and signified. Cf. JürgenSchiewe, Die Macht der Sprache: Eine Geschichte der Sprachkritik von der Antikebis zur Gegenwart (Munich: Beck, ); Eugenio Coseriu, Geschichte der Sprachphilosophie von der Antike bis zurGegenwart (Stuttgart: UTB, ); Hans-GeorgGadamer, Truth and Method,trans.Joel Wein- sheimer and Donald G. Marshall(New York: Crossroad, ). In his Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte,Paulhighlights the roleofmetaphors in phonetic and se- mantic shifts,seen as individual products based on the dialectic process between ausual meaning of aword and an occasional one. Cf. Hermann Paul, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (Tübingen: Nie- meyer, ). Mauthner quotes Paul in his Beiträge. Cf. Mauthner, Beiträge,I,: ‘Sprache ist Ab- straktion. Es gibt nur individuelle, atomisierte, momentaneSprechtätigkeit.’ Viennese culturewas anodal point at the turn of the last century,characterised by crisis,based on adistrust of reason,afailure of bourgeois values, and ageneral demystification of tradition. Dur- ing this period therewas afin-de-siècle reassessment in manycultural fields:inpaintingwith Klimt und Schiele, in music with Schönbergand Mahler,inpsychology with Freud and in physicswith Ernst Mach, whose theory of knowledge as ordered sense-experiencewas decisive for Mauthner. Cf. Christian Mittermüller,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • David Suchoff Family Resemblances: Ludwig Wittgenstein As a Jewish Philosopher the Admonition to Silence with Which Wittgenstein
    David Suchoff Family Resemblances: Ludwig Wittgenstein as a Jewish Philosopher The admonition to silence with which Wittgenstein ended the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) also marks the starting point for the emer- gence of his Jewish philosophical voice. Karl Kraus provides an instructive contrast: as a writer well known to Wittgenstein, Kraus’s outspoken and aggressive ridicule of “jüdeln” or “mauscheln” –the actual or alleged pronunciation of German with a Jewish or Yiddish accent – defined a “self-fashioning” of Jewish identity – from German and Hebrew in this case – that modeled false alternatives in philosophic terms.1 Kraus pre- sented Wittgenstein with an either-or choice between German and Jewish identity, while engaging in a witty but also unwitting illumination of the interplay between apparently exclusive alternatives that were linguistically influenced by the other’s voice. As Kraus became a touchstone for Ger- man Jewish writers from Franz Kafka to Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, he also shed light on the situation that allowed Wittgenstein to develop his own non-essentialist notion of identity, as the term “family resemblance” emerged from his revaluation of the discourse around Judaism. This transition from The False Prison, as David Pears calls Wittgenstein’s move from the Tractatus to the Philosophical Investiga- tions, was also a transformation of the opposition between German and Jewish “identities,” and a recovery of the multiple differences from which such apparently stable entities continually draw in their interconnected forms of life.2 “I’ll teach you differences,” the line from King Lear that Wittgenstein mentioned to M. O’C. Drury as “not bad” as a “motto” for the Philo- sophical Investigations, in this way represents Wittgenstein’s assertion of a German Jewish philosophic position.
    [Show full text]
  • Elisabeth Leinfellner.Indd
    Drei Pioniere der philosophisch-linguistischen Analyse von Zeit und Tempus: Mauthner, Jespersen, Reichenbach Elisabeth Leinfellner, Wien [A philosophical school in Tlön] reasons that the present is indefi nite, that the future has no reality other than as a present hope, that the past has no reality other than as a present memory. Jorge Luis Borges, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius 1. Einleitung: die semantische Rolle der Tempora Unsere alltägliche, ,psychologische‘, aber auch die abstrakte newtonsche oder mathematische Vorstellung von Zeit – die ,klassischen‘ Zeitvorstellungen – laufen darauf hinaus, dass es eine einfache lineare Abfolge von Vergangen- heit-Gegenwart-Zukunft gibt. Analysiert man jedoch natürliche Sprachen, dann bietet sich ein anderes, komplexeres Bild: Würde man der einfachen, klassischen Vorstellung folgen, dann käme man in der Sprache mit drei Tempora aus: Präsens, Präteritum, Futurum. Ein Blick in die Grammatiken verschiedener Sprachen zeigt aber, dass es auch andere Tempora neben die- sen dreien gibt, so im heutigen Deutsch das Plusquamperfekt und das Fu- turum exactum. Gewisse Tempora und auch temporale Ersatzformen lösen mehr oder minder glücklich das Problem, dass z.B. in einer Erzählung im Präteritum manchmal auch im zeitlichen Rückgriff eine Vergangenheit vor der Vergangenheit dargestellt werden muss, oder eine Zukunft in der Ver- gangenheit. Die Ursachen für eine nicht chronologische Darstellung sind vielfältig, z.B. stilistisch-textliche oder dass wir uns an Ereignisse nicht im- mer in der richtigen Reihenfolge erinnern. Weiters muss die Verwendung der Tempora in erzählenden Texten die Rekonstruktion des chronologischen Ablaufs von Ereignissen erlauben, z.B. aus praktischen Gründen. Dass Texte keineswegs immer chronologisch geordnet sind, hat in verschiedenen Disziplinen und oft im Gefolge des russischen Formalismus zu einer Unterscheidung zwischen zwei zeitlichen Achsen geführt, der chronologischen Achse der Abfolge der Ereignisse, und F.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Mind: Cultural Dynamics of the Psyche, Is Unusual in Tthe Content and It the Format
    Beyond the Mind A volume in Advances in Cultural Psychology: Constructing Human Development Jaan Valsiner, Series Editor Beyond the Mind Cultural Dynamics of the Psyche Giuseppina Marsico University of Salerno, Italy Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark Jaan Valsiner Aalborg University, Denmark INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC. Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov ISBN: 978-1-64113-034-9 (Paperback) 978-1-64113-035-6 (Hardcover) 978-1-64113-036-3 (ebook) Copyright © 2018 Information Age Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America Contents Introduction: Desire for Basic Science of Human Being .............. ix Giuseppina Marsico SECTION I Suffering for Science: Where Psychology Fails ....................................... 1 1 Culture in Psychology: Towards the Study of Structured, Highly Variable, and Self-Regulatory Psychological Phenomena ......3 Jaan Valsiner 2 Science of Psychology Today: Future Horizons ............................ 25 Jaan Valsiner COFFEE BREAK 1 Is There any Reason for Suffering—for Science in Psychology? .. 49 Giuseppina Marsico and Jaan Valsiner v vi Contents SECTION II Understanding
    [Show full text]
  • Is a Determinant Judgment Really a Judgment? Rodolphe Gasché
    Washington University Jurisprudence Review Volume 6 | Issue 1 2013 Is a Determinant Judgment Really a Judgment? Rodolphe Gasché Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence Part of the Epistemology Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons, Legal Theory Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons Recommended Citation Rodolphe Gasché, Is a Determinant Judgment Really a Judgment?, 6 Wash. U. Jur. Rev. 099 (2013). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence/vol6/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Jurisprudence Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IS A DETERMINANT JUDGMENT REALLY A JUDGMENT? RODOLPHE GASCHÉ The concern with the power of judgment arises in Hannah Arendt‘s work in response to critical events in modernity in which, as a result of the impotence of familiar standards and categories to provide answers and orientation, this power has become undone.1 Arendt already broaches the crisis of understanding and judgment in 1953, that is, two years after the publication of her work on totalitarianism, in an essay entitled Understanding and Politics (The Difficulties of Understanding) where she states that ―the rise of totalitarian governments is the central event of our world.‖ However, it is only as a result of her reading (or rather re-reading) of Kant‘s Critique of the Power of Judgment in 1957 that Arendt explicitly begins to develop a political concept of judgment that would be up to the challenge of events that defy both common sense and cognitive understanding.2 In a letter from August 29, 1957, to Karl Jaspers she writes: At the moment I‘m reading the Kritik der Urteilskraft with increasing fascination.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Women Philosophers Vol. IV
    A HISTORY OF WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS A History of Women Philosophers 1. Ancient Women Philosophers, 600 B.C.-500 A.D. 2. Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Women Philosophers, 500-1600 3. Modern Women Philosophers, 1600-1900 4. Contemporary Women Philosophers, 1900-today PROFESSOR C. J. DE VOGEL A History of Women Philosophers Volume 4 Contemporary Women Philosophers 1900-today Edited by MARY ELLEN WAITHE Cleveland State University, Cleveland, U.S.A. Springer-Science+Business Media, B. V. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Contemporary women philosophers : 1900-today / edited by Mary Ellen Waithe. p. cm. -- (A History of women philosophers ; v. 4.) Includes bibliographical references (p. xxx-xxx) and index. ISBN 978-0-7923-2808-7 ISBN 978-94-011-1114-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-1114-0 1. Women philosophers. 2. Philosophy. Modern--20th century. r. Waithe. Mary Ellen. II. Series. Bl05.W6C66 1994 190' .82--dc20 94-9712 ISBN 978-0-7923-2808-7 printed an acid-free paper AII Rights Reserved © 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1995 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover lst edition 1995 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Contents Acknowledgements xv Introduction to Volume 4, by Mary Ellen Waithe xix 1. Victoria, Lady Welby (1837-1912), by William Andrew 1 Myers I. Introduction 1 II. Biography 1 III.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Age Under Orage
    THE NEW AGE UNDER ORAGE CHAPTERS IN ENGLISH CULTURAL HISTORY by WALLACE MARTIN MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS BARNES & NOBLE, INC., NEW YORK Frontispiece A. R. ORAGE © 1967 Wallace Martin All rights reserved MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS 316-324 Oxford Road, Manchester 13, England U.S.A. BARNES & NOBLE, INC. 105 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003 Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome and London This digital edition has been produced by the Modernist Journals Project with the permission of Wallace T. Martin, granted on 28 July 1999. Users may download and reproduce any of these pages, provided that proper credit is given the author and the Project. FOR MY PARENTS CONTENTS PART ONE. ORIGINS Page I. Introduction: The New Age and its Contemporaries 1 II. The Purchase of The New Age 17 III. Orage’s Editorial Methods 32 PART TWO. ‘THE NEW AGE’, 1908-1910: LITERARY REALISM AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION IV. The ‘New Drama’ 61 V. The Realistic Novel 81 VI. The Rejection of Realism 108 PART THREE. 1911-1914: NEW DIRECTIONS VII. Contributors and Contents 120 VIII. The Cultural Awakening 128 IX. The Origins of Imagism 145 X. Other Movements 182 PART FOUR. 1915-1918: THE SEARCH FOR VALUES XI. Guild Socialism 193 XII. A Conservative Philosophy 212 XIII. Orage’s Literary Criticism 235 PART FIVE. 1919-1922: SOCIAL CREDIT AND MYSTICISM XIV. The Economic Crisis 266 XV. Orage’s Religious Quest 284 Appendix: Contributors to The New Age 295 Index 297 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A. R. Orage Frontispiece 1 * Tom Titt: Mr G. Bernard Shaw 25 2 * Tom Titt: Mr G.
    [Show full text]
  • WISDOM (Tlwma) and Pffllosophy (FALSAFA)
    WISDOM (tLWMA) AND PfflLOSOPHY (FALSAFA) IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT (as a framework for inquiry) By: Mehmet ONAL This thcsis is submitted ror the Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Wales - Lampeter 1998 b"9tr In this study the following two hypothesisare researched: 1. "WisdotW' is the fundamental aspect of Islamic thought on which Islamic civilisation was established through Islamic law (,Sharfa), theology (Ldi-M), philosophy (falsafq) and mysticism (Surism). 2. "Due to the first hypothesis Islamic philosophy is not only a commentary on the Greek philosophy or a new form of Ncoplatonism but a native Islamic wisdom understandingon the form of theoretical study". The present thesis consists of ten chaptersdealing with the concept of practical wisdom (Pikmq) and theoretical wisdom (philosophy or falsafa). At the end there arc a gcncral conclusion,glossary and bibliography. In the introduction (Chapter One) the definition of wisdom and philosophy is establishedas a conceptualground for the above two hypothesis. In the following chapter (Chapter Two) I focused on the historical background of these two concepts by giving a brief history of ancient wisdom and Greek philosophy as sourcesof Islamic thought. In the following two chapters (Chapter Three and Four) I tried to bring out a possibledefinition of Islamic wisdom in the Qur'5n and Sunna on which Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (A-alim), philosophy (falsafq) and mysticism (Sufism) consistedof. As a result of the above conceptual approaching,I tried to reach a new definition for wisdom (PiLma) as a method that helps in the establishmentof a new Islamic way of life and civilisation for our life.
    [Show full text]
  • Curren T Anthropology
    Forthcoming Current Anthropology Wenner-Gren Symposium Curren Supplementary Issues (in order of appearance) t Human Biology and the Origins of Homo. Susan Antón and Leslie C. Aiello, Anthropolog Current eds. e Anthropology of Potentiality: Exploring the Productivity of the Undened and Its Interplay with Notions of Humanness in New Medical Anthropology Practices. Karen-Sue Taussig and Klaus Hoeyer, eds. y THE WENNER-GREN SYMPOSIUM SERIES Previously Published Supplementary Issues April THE BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF LIVING HUMAN Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism. omas Wynn and 2 POPULATIONS: WORLD HISTORIES, NATIONAL STYLES, 01 Frederick L. Coolidge, eds. 2 AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS Engaged Anthropology: Diversity and Dilemmas. Setha M. Low and Sally GUEST EDITORS: SUSAN LINDEE AND RICARDO VENTURA SANTOS Engle Merry, eds. V The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations olum Corporate Lives: New Perspectives on the Social Life of the Corporate Form. Contexts and Trajectories of Physical Anthropology in Brazil Damani Partridge, Marina Welker, and Rebecca Hardin, eds. e Birth of Physical Anthropology in Late Imperial Portugal 5 Norwegian Physical Anthropology and a Nordic Master Race T. Douglas Price and Ofer 3 e Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. The Ainu and the Search for the Origins of the Japanese Bar-Yosef, eds. Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics Supplement Practicing Anthropology in the French Colonial Empire, 1880–1960 Physical Anthropology in the Colonial Laboratories of the United States Humanizing Evolution Human Population Biology in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century Internationalizing Physical Anthropology 5 Biological Anthropology at the Southern Tip of Africa The Origins of Anthropological Genetics Current Anthropology is sponsored by e Beyond the Cephalic Index Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Anthropology and Personal Genomics Research, a foundation endowed for scientific, Biohistorical Narratives of Racial Difference in the American Negro educational, and charitable purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Natural Versus Social Sciences: on Understanding in Economics* Wolfgang Drechsler
    2. Natural versus social sciences: on understanding in economics* Wolfgang Drechsler Verstehen ist der ursprüngliche Seinscharakter des menschlichen Lebens selber. (Gadamer 1990, p. 264, 1989, p. 259) Half a century ago, Ludwig von Mises concluded an essay with a title very similar to the present one by addressing the proponents of mathematical economics thus: ‘If it may some day be necessary to reform economic theory radically this change will not take its direction along the lines sug- gested by the present critics. The objections of these are thoroughly refuted forever’ (1942, p. 253).1 Mises’s first statement was factually wrong; this does not mean, however, that the second one was incorrect as well. Indeed, it seems to me that the problem of the current mainstream, math- ematical, usually neoclassical approach to economics2 is two-fold. It is flawed both practically and theoretically: practically because it does not deliver, theoretically because it rests on premises that are problematic at best, and extrapolates from them by equally questionable means. The argu- ment by its protagonists has been to excuse practical problems by pointing to theoretical truth-value, and theoretical ones by pointing to practical success. This chapter concentrates on the theoretical problems. It rests on the assumption, rather than tries to demonstrate, that mathematical econom- ics does not deliver; if one feels that it does, then one need not read on. But of course the theoretical problems have a practical connection (see Kant 1992, pp. 23–5), because the purpose of pursuing economic scholarship is not to create an aesthetically pleasing theoretical system, but rather to say something meaningful and consequential, directly or indirectly, about reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Language As Metaphor P
    E-Revista de Estudos Interculturais do CEI – ISCAP N.º 3, maio de 2015 MAUTHNER VERSUS WITTGENSTEIN: LANGUAGE AS METAPHOR Paulo Barroso Escola Superior de Educação de Viseu Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Linguagens da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa [email protected] Abstract Mauthner esteemed language as a philosophical inquiry. He measured the philosophical entailments between language and reality and the consequent knowledge produced by such entailments. He questioned language’s aptitude to express and represent reality and, according to him, language is a critical source of knowledge and an unfaithful representation of reality, because there is a gap between language and reality, i.e. language distorts perception and engenders false and fictitious assumptions about reality. Language fosters superstition, creates gods and idols and exerts a dominating power over the intellect. Mauthner pointed out a critique of language based on metaphors, which would serve to address and clarify the deformation of reality. Wittgenstein, unlike himself suggested, was inspired by Mauthner. Both showed interest toward the critical analysis of language and there are many conceptual similarities between their language’s conceptions (e.g. concerning the use of metaphors to understand language). Therefore, this paper seeks a) to emphasize Mauthner’s metaphors on language as an accurate interpretation regarding the philosophical entailments between language and reality, and b) to demonstrate the epistemological legacy of Mauthner’s critique of language to Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language. Keywords: language; Mauthner; metaphor; philosophy of language; Wittgenstein. Resumo Mauthner encarava a linguagem como uma investigação filosófica. Assim, mediu os vínculos filosóficos entre linguagem e realidade e o consequente 1 conhecimento produzido por tais vínculos e questionou a aptidão da linguagem para expressar e representar a realidade.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample File Heavily on Patriotism and National Identity
    Empire Builder Kit Preface ............................................................ 2 Government Type Credits & Legal ................................................ 2 An empire has it rulers. The type of ruler can How to Use ..................................................... 2 often determine the character of a nation. Are Government Types ......................................... 3 they a democratic society that follows the will Simple Ruler Type ....................................... 3 of the people, or are they ruled by a harsh dictator who demand everyone caters to their Expanded Ruler Type .................................. 4 every whim. They could even be ruled by a Also Available ................................................ 10 group of industrialists whose main goal is the acquisition of wealth. Coming Soon ................................................. 10 This part of the Empire Builder kit outlines some of the more common, and not so common, types of ruler or government your empire or country may possess. Although designed with fantasy settings in mind, most of the entries can be used in a sci-fi or other genre of story or game. There are two tables in this publication. One for simple and quick governments and A small disclaimer – A random generator will another that is expanded. Use the first table never be as good as your imagination. Use for when you want a common government this to jump start your own ideas or when you type or a broad description, such as need to fill in the blank. democracy or monarchy. Use the second/expanded table for when you want something that is rare or you want more Sample details,file such as what type of democracy etc. If you need to randomly decide between the two tables, then roll a d20. If you get 1 – 18 then use the simple table, otherwise use the expanded one.
    [Show full text]
  • Realismus – Relativismus – Konstruktivismus Realism – Relativism – Constructivism
    Realismus – Relativismus – Konstruktivismus Realism – Relativism – Constructivism Programm des 38. Internationalen Wittgenstein Symposiums 9. – 15. August 2015 Kirchberg am Wechsel Program of the 38th International Wittgenstein Symposium August 9 – 15, 2015 Kirchberg am Wechsel Für aktuelle Programmänderungen beachten Sie bitte die Aushänge oder siehe: http://www.alws.at/program_2015.pdf. www.alws.at Program subject to change, for updates please refer to the postings or go to: http://www.alws.at/program_2015.pdf. Wir danken folgenden Institutionen und Personen für die finanzielle Unterstützung des Symposiums: We thank the following institutions and persons for their financial support of the symposium: Landeshauptmann von Niederösterreich Dr. Erwin Pröll Amt der NÖ Landesregierung, Abteilung Wissenschaft und Forschung Hofrat Dr. Joachim Rössl Mag. Paul Pennerstorfer Mag. Georg Pejrimovsky Mag. Matthias Kafka Marktgemeinde Kirchberg am Wechsel Bürgermeister DI Dr. Willibald Fuchs Gemeinde Trattenbach Bürgermeister Johannes Hennerfeind Raiffeisenbank NÖ-Alpin Direktor Johannes Pepelnik Leader Region Bucklige Welt-Wechselland Leader-Manager Franz Piribauer Kurdirektorin Maria Haarhofer Sound Art Service, Stefan Schlögl Gasthof Grüner Baum, Kirchberg am Wechsel Gasthof St. Wolfgang, Kirchberg am Wechsel Gasthof zur 1000-jährigen Linde, Kirchberg am Wechsel Familie Hennrich Taxi – Autobusunternehmen Karl Mayerhofer Kleinbusunternehmen Ingrid Fahrner Impressum: Eigentümer, Verleger und Herausgeber: Österreichische Ludwig Wittgenstein Gesellschaft, Markt 63, A-2880 Kirchberg am Wechsel. Redaktion des Programms: Christian Kanzian, Josef Mitterer, Katharina Neges. Visuelle Gestaltung: Sascha Windholz. Druck: Eigner Druck; 3040 Neulengbach. Beiträge, Abstrakta-Heft und Programm wurden mit Hilfe eines von Joseph Wang, Universität Innsbruck, erarbeiteten Datenbankprogramms erstellt. Kontakt: [email protected] Papers, book of abstracts and program were produced using a database application developed by Joseph Wang, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
    [Show full text]