“The trouble is with our imagery”: Wittgenstein on Dispositions and Habits of Thought Alice Morelli
4th November, 2025
@ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Please register for this online event here.
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/L1bkA5cYS423uBRYR5fxQQ
About the Speaker Abstract Video
About the Speaker
Alice Morelli (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) works mainly on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy and his anthropological turn. She is also interested in classical pragmatism, the history of analytic philosophy and philosophy of habit. Her previous publications include Wittgenstein on Habit and Custom: A Conceptual Analysis”, Argumenta, early view, 2024 , and “Is there a Wittgensteinian Legacy on Habit ?”, European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy , XVII (1). Pragmatism Today (2018).
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Morelli, A. (2024).
A Wittgensteinian Perspective on Dispositions (2024th edition). Palgrave Macmillan.
Cite
Abstract
This talk addresses Wittgenstein’s critique of dispositionalism and his use of the notion of habit or custom. Wittgenstein’s attitude towards dispositionalism is complex: on the one hand, he explicitly criticizes certain forms of dispositionalism in several passages of his middle and later work; on the other hand, he makes positive use of the notion of disposition to elucidate the grammar of specific psychological concepts. My focus will be on the pars destruens .
The thesis is twofold: I argue that Wittgenstein rejects a specific use of the notion of disposition – one grounded in a misleading analogy embodied in our language – and that this analogy exemplifies a dysfunctional habit of thought. First, I focus on Wittgenstein’s critique of dispositionalism and show that the confusion is that between the grammatical and the factual. Second, I focus on Wittgenstein’s use of the notion of habit, or custom, and on the specific features of the notion of habit of thought. I conclude that Wittgenstein’s remarks on dispositions and his reflections on habit provide a compelling and original perspective from which to approach current debates on language, mind, behavior, and action.
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