Wittgenstein and Deep Disagreements

Jordi Fairhurst (Universitat de les Illes Balears)

The ALEF research group (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) announces an online talk by Jordi Fairhurst (University of the Balearic Islands) entitled "Wittgenstein and Deep Disagreements". The talk is part of the group's regular seminar and takes place on Friday, JANUARY 28, 18.00 EET (Eastern European Time). Please write to [email protected] or check our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ALEF-100692348488914) if you want to participate. For more information about ALEF, as well as the schedule for the seminar in the 2021-2022 winter semester, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/alefgroupcluj.

Here is the abstract of the talk:

Deep disagreements are generally understood as systematic and persistent disagreements rooted in contrary world views where there is no mutually recognized method of resolution because the parties involved often reason and analyze evidence using different epistemic frameworks. Despite the centrality of deep disagreements in our life and interaction with others, there is little consensus regarding how we ought to understand the nature and epistemology of deep disagreements. My research aims to fill this lacuna. Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophical method and insights, I propose to motivate, develop, and explore a novel conception of the nature and epistemology deep disagreements. Against existing theories of deep disagreements, I defend that it is a mistake to assume that deep disagreements are epistemologically uniform and can only be adequately explained by one true global theory. Instead, deep disagreements are complex phenomena which form a complex unity in terms of a family unified by a network of crisscrossing similarities and kindships. Accordingly, I propose to rectify existing theories by restricting them to local descriptions that clarify the epistemology of particular kinds of deep disagreements on a case-by-case basis by responding to their specific epistemological features. By adopting a methodology that is more in line with Wittgenstein’s later philosophy and understanding deep disagreements in this way, my research will provide a novel and attractive account of the nature and epistemology of deep disagreements that furthers our understanding of a central part of our lives.