ABSTRACT
This study critically examines Wittgenstein’s views on the mind-body problem. It is possible toprovide an examination of Wittgenstein’s approach by tracing the evolution of the theory ofmind and the mind-body problem, by considering the current ways of dealing with the mind-body problem, and Wittgenstein’s critique of the notion of the mind. Wittgenstein’s views onthe nature of philosophy and the relationship between philosophy and psychology make itpossible to understand and as this dissertation argues – see beyond – the conceptual confusionthat has since arisen out of philosophic tradition that perpetuates a ‘myth of the mind’. Schoolsof thought such as the Cartesians and cognitivists have attempted, through the construction ofvarious elaborate theories, to solve the ‘riddle’ of the mind and to address the so-called ‘mind-body problem’. Cognitive science, in particular,has used the tradition and the myth of themind as a basis for its research. Wittgenstein shows that such thinking is particularly muddled.By examiningWittgenstein’sapproachtothemind-body problem,itisarguedherethattheories based on the tradition of the ‘myth of the mind’ are inherently flawed. Wittgensteinuseshismethods,consistingofhisnotionsof‘grammar’,‘languagegames’andthere-arrangement of concepts, to extrapolatemeaning and to see through the conceptual confusionsthattheuseoflanguagecauses and thatgiveriseto themind-bodyproblem .
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INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is arguably one of the most influential thinkers of the 20thcentury. According to Warnock, “Wittgenstein has exerted an influence more powerful thanthat of any other individual upon the contemporary practice of philosophy” (Warnock, 1958p.62).
Two schools of philosophical thought, the analytical and the linguistic, have beenattributed to his works. His first work, and the only work to have been published during hislifetime,istheTractatusLogicusPhilosophicus.TheTractatusmainlydealswithlanguageand logic and the picture theory of meaning, where language is used as a means to representreality and to understand the mind. In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein considersthe role of language and grammar and how they are used in every day language and howmeaningis derived from this usage.
Wittgensteinwasinitiallydistancedfrompsychology.Inlinewiththeanti-psychologisticthinkingofthetime,hestatesintheTractatusthatpsychologyhasnospecial
relation to philosophy. However, his lectures on private experience and sense data in the mid-1930s show that Wittgenstein’s interest in psychology remained with him until his death in1951.In particular, his later works on Philosophy of Psychology develop the themes of theinterrelationship between language use arising out of social context, human interaction, human nature and behaviour.These themes haveimportantimplications for psychology,and particularly the area of cognitive psychology. His work in the Investigations on concepts – andin particular on concepts used in psychology – differs from those used by the cognitivists whohaveadoptedauseofconceptsbased moreon developmentaland theoreticalapproach.
It is questionable as to whether Wittgenstein conforms to the traditional idea of aphilosopher.HeseemstoembodymanyofthetraitsofaRomanticwhileformulatingquestions in a Socratic manner. He was tormented by philosophical problems and seemed tostruggletoexpresshimselfandarticulatehisthoughts,writingandrewritingnumerousversions of the Philosophical Investigations, and was never satisfied with the outcome (Stroll,2002). Eventually, his executors were left with the task of finalising and publishing it. Hewrote prolifically and left behind a vast amount of documents, which have become: OnCertainty, Nachlass, Zettel, Remarks on the Foundation of Mathematics and Remarks on thePhilosophyof PsychologyIandll,respectively.All ofthesearecurrentlybeingresearched.
