A Pedagogic Reading of Wittgenstein's Life and Later Works

Abstract

This article establishes a pedagogic reading of Wittgenstein's later work, which explores the significance of teaching and learning themes through close textual analysis and archival work on his Nachlass. I argue for the prevalence and importance of Wittgenstein's references to teaching, learning and training by showing the role these references play in the structure and central points of his later works. The opening passages of the Philosophical Investigations and the Brown Book about how we learn language are a framing device for arguments later in the texts; one to which Wittgenstein repeatedly returns at crucial junctures. Learning is the process that weaves together our practices and their expected outcomes, which in turn shapes and reshapes the norms operative in our shared forms of life. Reading Wittgenstein with sensitivity to pedagogic themes thus undermines interpretations that rely on rule-following as the explanatory mechanism by which linguistic use generates meaning. Instead, we learn to use language that carries meaning by being taught the patterns, norms and judgements that come with particular uses. I thus argue that these references to learning and teaching are far from incidental and are instead central to understanding major concepts such as rule-following, experience and judgement.