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On the Possibility of a Parallelism Between Wittgenstein's ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A PARALLELISM BETWEEN WITTGENSTEIN’S UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE AND MUSIC A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY BURCU DURUKAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY JULY 2019 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahar Öz Director (Acting) I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Parkan (METU, PHIL) Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan (METU, PHIL) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Turgay Erdener (Hacettepe Uni., MÜZİK) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Burcu Durukan Signature : iii ABSTRACT ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A PARALLELISM BETWEEN WITTGENSTEIN’S UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE AND MUSIC Durukan, Burcu M.A., Department of Philosophy Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan July 2019, 100 pages In my thesis, my main aim is to examine the parallelism between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s understanding of language and music. I will explain my ideas about the similarity between language and music with the linguistic concepts of Wittgenstein. Then, I will compare music and language in terms of their resemblance regarding the issue of meaning. Lastly, I will conclude that musical understanding is shaped through being a part of a particular social context just as in the case of understanding a language, and the value of music cannot be uttered by words. Keywords: Wittgenstein, Music, Language, Understanding iv ÖZ WITTGENSTEIN’IN DİL ANLAYIŞI VE MÜZİK ARASINDAKİ BENZERLİĞİN OLANAKLARI ÜZERİNE Durukan, Burcu Yüksek Lisans, Felsefe Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan Temmuz 2019, 100 sayfa Tezimde temel amacım Ludwig Wittgenstein’ın dil anlayışı ve müzik arasındaki benzerliği incelemektir. Dil ve müzik arasındaki benzerliğe ilişkin düşüncelerimi Wittgensteın’ın dile dair kavramları üzerinden açıklayacağım. Daha sonra dil ve müziği anlam konusundaki benzerlikleri açısından karşılaştıracağım. Son olarak müzikal anlayışın, tıpkı bir dili anlamada olduğu gibi, belirli bir toplumsal bağlamın parçası olma yoluyla şekillendiğini ve müzikteki değerin kelimeler yoluyla dile getirilemeyeceğini aktaracağım. Anahtar Kelimeler: Wittgenstein, Müzik, Dil, Anlama v To My Beloved Parents vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Ş. Halil Turan for his guidance and support throughout the process of writing this thesis. I am also grateful for their comments and criticism to the professors in my jury, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Parkan and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Turgay Erdener. I thank to my dear sister Esra for her moral support and motivational talks. She was there whenever I need motivation for writing. I am thankful to Burak for his encouragement. I am also grateful to my family since they always stood by me. Without them, I would not be at this point where I stand. I also thank to Çakıl and Simba. Maybe they do not care about my thesis, but they were very soft and made me happy all the times. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM...........................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... v DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 2. WITTGENSTEIN – ON LANGUAGE ........................................................... 5 2.1 Sharp Boundaries of Language ............................................................. 7 2.1.1 Boundaries of “Sayable” in “A Lecture on Ethics” ................. 11 2.1.2 Picture of Reality – Facts ......................................................... 14 2.2 Flexible Boundaries of Language ........................................................ 19 2.2.1 Language Game - Family Resemblance - Form of Life ........... 22 3. WITTGENSTEIN’S AESTHETICS .............................................................. 31 3.1 Wittgenstein and Art ........................................................................... 31 3.2 Wittgenstein and Value ....................................................................... 38 4. WITTGENSTEIN AND MUSIC ................................................................... 48 4.1 Music and Language Game ................................................................. 48 4.2 Music and Meaning ............................................................................. 55 4.2.1 Understanding Technical Structure .......................................... 57 4.2.2 What Does Affect Understanding Music? ............................... 60 4.2.3 Signs of Understanding ............................................................ 63 4.2.3.1 What Can be the Signs of Understanding? ................. 63 4.2.3.2 What Cannot be the Signs of Understanding? ........... 68 4.2.4 Comparing Music and Language ............................................. 71 viii 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 83 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 86 APPENDICES A: TURKISH SUMMARY / TÜRKÇE ÖZET ................................................ 89 B: THESIS PERMISSION FORM / TEZ İZİN FORMU .............................. 100 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PI Philosophical Investigations TLP Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus CV Culture and Value LE “A Lecture on Ethics” LC Lectures and Conversations on Ethics, Aesthetics and Religious Belief NB Notebooks 1914-1916 x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION While I was reading Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writings, his examples and the statements on music, and the metaphors of music have aroused my interest quietly, and I have started to think about them. I have wondered whether there is a particular reason that he uses these metaphors of music, and I have concluded that he does not use them incidentally. I think this is not a coincidence because of Wittgenstein’s family background intimately related to music. Therefore, I wanted to exhibit his ideas on music by choosing the subject of the parallelism between his understanding of language and music in my thesis. Wittgenstein’s understanding of language is also a basis for understanding of music. I will try to indicate the resemblance between these two. First, in Chapter 2, I will explain Wittgenstein’s general philosophy of language in his two different periods. I will emphasize that Wittgenstein conceptualizes language in the Tractatus as strict bounds, while in the Investigation they turn into more flexible boundaries around language through the concepts of “language game”, “family resemblance” and “form of life,” and this understanding of language also affects his views on aesthetics. Before going to Wittgenstein’s views on aesthetics, in Chapter 3, I will explain Wittgenstein’s artistic background for telling his relationship with art, especially with music. The reason for writing this section is to show that it is not surprising that Wittgenstein, as a person dealing with art and music intimately, develops views on language by building parallelism with music. Then, I will explain his views on the concept of value as based on his ideas on “A Lecture on Ethics” by focusing on the fact and value distinction to show his views regarding aesthetics. 1 In Chapter 4, I will try to relate Wittgenstein’s ideas on language into music. Firstly, I will handle Wittgenstein’s concept of language game as linking it to music. I claim that music is exactly like language consists of language games, and one has to be involved in the game to understand music just as one has to understand a speech. Otherwise, playing an instrument or singing song merely by following music sheet cannot be more than just reading without understanding. Therefore, learning to play an instrument resembles learning language because it is more than knowing the technical rules of it. Here, I will evaluate music as similar to language regarding Wittgenstein’s understanding of language in the Investigations as “meaning as use.” Both in music and a verbal language, how to speak, meanings of words when they come together with other words, what they will mean in certain circumstances is learned through practice by the agent
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