Fitting, Feeling and What Hegel Meant
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Papers of the 37th International Wittgenstein Symposium |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | Wittgenstein; Hegel |
| Description | Two objects fit together if they have a compatible shape. I want to focus on a different kind of fitting which is predominant in Wittgenstein's latest texts. This is a fitting underlined by a feeling of aesthetic comfort. One may even feel that all things fit together. Wittgenstein ascribed this expression of the unity of experience to Hegel. I argue for two claims: (1) Wittgenstein might have been inspired by the Neo-hegelian philosophy of Francis Bradley and his account of a feeling base. (2) Wittgenstein ascribed to Hegel the idea that objects are what they are only in their familiar surroundings. Hegel indeed claimed something like this—most notably in the "Sense-Certainty" chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit. I provide a Wittgensteinian reading of this chapter concluding that every demonstrative act occurs against a background of demonstrative practices and that the doctrine of external relations is an inadequate account of knowledge. |
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