What is on certainty by Wittgenstein about?
What is on certainty by Wittgenstein about?
On Certainty. Summary. On Certainty is a series of notes Wittgenstein took toward the end of his life on matters related to knowledge, doubt, skepticism, and certainty. Although the notes are not organized into any coherent whole, certain themes and preoccupations recur throughout.
What does Descartes say about certainty?
(Matters are complicated, however, by the fact that Descartes also says in the Third Meditation that certainty depends on knowing that God exists and is not a deceiver.) Ludwig Wittgenstein also seems to connect certainty with indubitability. He says that “If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything.
What was Wittgenstein’s contribution to philosophy?
Wittgenstein also sketched novel refutations of philosophical skepticism in various guises. The genesis of On Certainty was Wittgenstein’s “long interest” in two famous papers by G. E. Moore, his 1939 Proof of the External World and earlier Defence of Common Sense (1925).
Does Wittgenstein refute skeptical doubts about the existence of an external world?
Wittgenstein does not try to refute skeptical doubts about the existence of an external world so much as he tries to sidestep them, showing that the doubts themselves do not do the work they are meant to do.
Is there a hand behind Wittgenstein’s hand?
Behind Wittgenstein’s belief that “here is a hand” is an odd proposition, either to assert or to doubt, lies his insistence on the importance of context. The very idea of doubting the existence of the external world is a very philosophical activity.
What is On Certainty (1969) about?
This interest is more evident in his final notebook, published posthumously as On Certainty (1969, henceforth OC), where he offers a sustained and, at least apparently, fragmentary treatment of epistemological issues.
