British Wittgenstein Society

Wednesday, November 20 at University College London's Philosophy of Education Seminar

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s On Certainty raises a number of puzzles about how to understand certainty, doubt, and the practices that shore up meaning. It is also a work suffused with references to learning, teaching, and students. A careful textual analysis reveals that learning itself plays a role in Wittgenstein’s attempt to parse out these difficult philosophical issues. Learning is the process through which we negotiate not just meaning (learning meaning, amending meaning etc.), but it is also the process via which we negotiate between certainty and doubt. This tarrying between certainty and doubt is thus integral to the learning process.