Wittgenstein and Aesthetics

Abstract

In the contemporary debate about Aesthetics, the name of Ludwig Wittgen stein is appearing more and more often. The relationship between the Austrian philosopher, founding father of the 20th century’s linguistic turn, and Aesthet ics is not only a matter of cultural education or personal interests but most of all it is a theoretical question. As it is well known, Wittgenstein’s Bildung is very deeply related to the Viennese cultural and artistic milieu between the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century: as pointed out by several biographers (cfr. Janik and Toulmin 1973; Monk 1990), Wittgenstein’s house was an important cultural gathering, where it was possible to meet personalities like Brahms and Mahler, Clara Schumann and Richard Strauss. The Wittgenstein family’s patronage involved, for example, Gustav Klimt, who painted a portrait of Ludwig’s sister Margarethe, and Maurice Revel, who was asked to compose a concert for left hand alone by the pianist Paul, one of the philosopher’s brothers who was mutilated during the World War I. But Wittgenstein’s interest for Aesthetics is more theoretical than biographi cal, as witnessed by the recent Wittgenstein and Aesthetics . Perspective and De bates, a collective volume edited by Alessandro Arbo, Michel Le Du and Sa bine Plaud, from Strasbourg University. The different contributions offer a comprehensive overview of the international studies on Wittgenstein: among the authors, Maurizio Ferraris, Jerrold Levinson and Antonia Soulez have a peculiar prominence. The volume is composed of five parts: the first is devoted to the definition of what an Aesthetic Investigation is, while the second part is focused on Aesthet ic Grammar, intended as a specific application of “second Wittgenstein” reflec tion to phenomenology of perception and philosophy of art; the third part, on the other hand, is completely devoted to Musical Understanding, showing the relevance of this particular form of art in the philosopher’s work, while the fourth part addresses the relationship between Ethics and Aesthetics, both