Philosopher as a Therapist

Learning from Wittgenstein

Authors

  • Peter Tyler St Mary's University

Keywords:

Alain Badiou, Anti-Philosophy, Pedagogy, Perspicuous View, Therapy, Wittgenstein

Abstract

Recent commentators have suggested that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) can be understood as much as a therapist as a logician or theoretician. This paper explores how Wittgenstein ‘goes about his work’ as a therapist by looking at two aspects of his writings: the Übersichtliche Blick or ‘Way of Seeing’ and the move in his philosophy from thinking to seeing to acting. The paper concludes by suggesting that a Wittgensteinian approach to learning could be categorised as a view of pedagogy as ‘astonishment’.

Author Biography

Peter Tyler, St Mary's University

Prof. Peter Tyler is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Mary's University, London. He has written and lectures extensively on pastoral theology, mysticism, and psychology. His latest books include Picturing the Soul: Revisioning Psychotherapy and Spiritual Direction (Dharmaram, 2014), Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Soul (Bloomsbury, 2013), and The Return to the Mystical: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Teresa of Avila and the Christian Mystical Tradition (Continuum, 2011). He is a registered psychotherapist in private practice. For more details, you may visit http://insoulpursuit.blogspot.co.uk.

References

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R. Rorty, “Keeping Philosophy Pure,” in Consequences of Pragmatism (Essays 1972–1980), Brighton: Harvester, 1982, 20.

D. Hutto, Wittgenstein and the End of Philosophy: Neither Theory nor Therapy, London: Macmillan, 2003.

D. F. Pears, The False Prison: A Study of the Development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon, 1988, 218.

D. Moyal-Sharrock, The Third Wittgenstein: The Post-Investigations Works, London: Ashgate, 2004.

Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, ed., C. Barrett, Oxford: Blackwell, 1989, 45-46.

J. Genova, Wittgenstein: A Way of Seeing, London: Routledge, 1995, xiii.

R. Rhees, Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections, Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1981, 125

Wittgenstein, Remarks on Colour, ed. G. Anscombe; trans. L. McAlister and M. Schättle, Oxford: Blackwell, 1977, III, 43.

Wittgenstein, Vermischte Bemerkungen, vol. 8: Werkausgabe in 8 Bände, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993, 1940.

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Wittgenstein, Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, reprinted in Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, eds. J. C. Klagge and A. Nordmann, Cambridge: Hackett, 1993, 121.

Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe and R. Rhees, Oxford: Blackwell, 1958, 133.

Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philsophicus, trans. D. F. Pears and B. McGuinness, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961. See also What can be shown, cannot be said, Tractatus, 4.1212.

Wittgenstein, Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. 2, eds. G. H. von Wright and H. Nyman, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980, 474.

Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, xi. 194e; / Philosophische Untersuchungen, vol. 1: Werkausgabe in 8 Bände, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993, 520.

Wittgenstein, Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. 1, eds. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, Oxford: Blackwell, 1982, 554.

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Published

2015-09-30

How to Cite

Tyler, P. . (2015). Philosopher as a Therapist: Learning from Wittgenstein . Journal of Dharma, 40(3), 279–294. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/jd/article/view/189