The too Early Wittgenstein? - International Conference and Graduate Workshop

‘My type of thinking is not wanted in this present age, I have to swim so strongly against the tide. Perhaps in a hundred years people will really want what I am writing.’

After more than sixty years since Wittgenstein’s death in 1951, despite large agreement as to his seminal influence on 20th century philosophy, scholars still disagree widely about the aims, contents, and methods of his philosophising. Likewise Wittgenstein research has come to maintain a position disconnected from philosophical research generally, and often seems neglected both by analytic and continental philosophy.

The event pursues two main goals. The first is to identify the unique character, that is, the distinctive method and style of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, which has struck so many as highly revolutionary, yet which also appears to be one of the main reasons for its recalcitrance to being employed in contemporary philosophy. The second is to explore the contemporary significance of Wittgenstein’s thoughts on his main areas of concern: language, psychology, and mathematics, their interrelatedness within Wittgenstein’s work and with his distinctive way of investigating philosophical questions.