Category Archives: Wittgenstein

Planned Obsolescence

There is a  saying, supposedly Buddhist, that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.  This week in #rhizo14 we are looking at the opposite to this  – how should the teacher disappear – how do we empower our learners … Continue reading

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Reading, writing and forgetting

“Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.”  Nietzsche, somewhere I often like to begin my writing with a quotation from a philosopher, and this one is particularly apt for this week’s #rhizo14 topic  Is … Continue reading

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Types of knowledge

If the true is what is grounded, then the ground is not true, nor yet false. Wittgenstein, On Certainty Section 205 There’s two rival epistemological theories which we teach to our first years: foundationalism and coherentism.  I wonder if these might be helpful in … Continue reading

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Meaning versus inspiring

I’ve been thinking again about Cath Ellis’s blog post encouraging #rhizo14 participants to read D&G in the original and wondering if it really matters what an original meant when they wrote something, or whether it’s what it inspires in others … Continue reading

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Duck-rabbit

I have a very talented friend called Katy, who studied Philosophy at Crichton campus and heard about Wittgenstein’s duck-rabbit.  Here is it from the original  Philosophical Investigations II, XI (p194).  Wittgenstein is talking about the difference between “seeing”and “seeing as”, (or … Continue reading

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Intrinsic interest

I’ve been asked to think about what intrinsic interest is for my PhD cluster* and I thought the best way to stop this topic annoying me and stopping me from getting on with what I am meant to be doing … Continue reading

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Being Wittgensteinian

When I did my first degree I also worked in a factory for a couple of days of the week.  This meant that I could guarantee spending 2 hours at a stretch sitting at a machine with nothing to occupy … Continue reading

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On the difference between philosophy and dishwater

I’ve been chasing a half-remembered quote of Wittgenstein’s for a while now.  As ever, when  I found the text it was not saying exactly what I thought it was saying, but something even better. Here it is: Wittgenstein wrote to … Continue reading

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