Button, T;
(2018)
Wittgenstein on Solipsism in the 1930s: Private Pains, Private Languages, and Two Uses of 'I'.
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement
, 82
pp. 205-229.
10.1017/s1358246118000061.
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Abstract
In the early-to-mid 1930s, Wittgenstein investigated solipsism via the philosophy of language. In this paper, I want to reopen Wittgenstein's ‘grammatical’ examination of solipsism. Wittgenstein begins by considering the thesis that only I can feel my pains. Whilst this thesis may tempt us towards solipsism, Wittgenstein points out that this temptation rests on a grammatical confusion concerning the phrase ‘my pains’. In §1, I unpack and vindicate his thinking. After discussing ‘my pains’, Wittgenstein makes his now famous suggestion that the word ‘I’ has two distinct uses: a subject-use and an object-use. The purpose of Wittgenstein's suggestion has, however, been widely misunderstood. I unpack it in §2, explaining how the subject-use connects with a phenomenological language, and so again tempts us into solipsism. In §§3–4, I consider various stages of Wittgenstein's engagement with this kind of solipsism, culminating in a rejection of solipsism (and of subject-uses of ‘I’) via reflections on private languages.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Wittgenstein on Solipsism in the 1930s: Private Pains, Private Languages, and Two Uses of 'I' |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s1358246118000061 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/s1358246118000061 |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10085870 |
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