Doubtful Certainties: Language-Games, Forms of Life, Relativism

Description

To what extent can we doubt certainties? How are certainties expressed in words? Which language games convey certainty? To answer these questions we have to recall the method Wittgenstein used in his investigations. When we look at language games and forms of life as inseparable phenomena, do forms of life then provide any certainty? On the other hand, do we automatically relapse into relativism once we doubt certainties? Which formal structures underlie certainty and doubt? The book is intended to answer these questions. CONTENTS Doubtful Certainties Language-Games, Forms of Life, Relativism Taking Language Games Seriously Is there Certainty in our Form of Life? Certainty and Forms of Life ‘Hinge Propositions’ and Radical Skepticism Animal Logic and Transcendental Arguments: On Certainty’s two Levels of Justification Über Gewißheit: a Textbook for Psychologists? Wittgenstein, Pretence and Uncertainty Was Wittgenstein a Relativist? Language Meets and Measures Reality Beyond Relativism: Wittgenstein’s Method of Grammatical Enquiry in Philosophical Investigations §§198-202 Russian Matters for Wittgenstein Common Sense and Language: Wittgenstein and Gramsci Demystifying Mysticism: Brouwer and Wittgenstein Wittgenstein and the Future of the Mathematical Sciences Abbreviations