Leading a Human Life: Wittgenstein, Intentionality, and Romanticism - Softcover

Eldridge, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226203131 ISBN 13: 9780226203133

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1997

Synopsis

In this provocative new study, Richard Eldridge presents a highly original and compelling account of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, one of the most enduring yet enigmatic works of the twentieth century. He does so by reading the text as a dramatization of what is perhaps life's central motivating struggle—the inescapable human need to pursue an ideal of expressive freedom within the difficult terms set by culture.

Eldridge sees Wittgenstein as a Romantic protagonist, engaged in an ongoing internal dialogue over the nature of intentional consciousness, ranging over ethics, aesthetics, and philosophy of mind. The picture of the human mind that emerges through this dialogue unsettles behaviorism, cognitivism, and all other scientifically oriented orthodoxies. Leading a human life becomes a creative act, akin to writing a poem, of continuously seeking to overcome both complacency and skepticism. Eldridge's careful reconstruction of the central motive of Wittgenstein's work will influence all subsequent scholarship on it.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Beginning from the Kantian and post-Kantian efforts to maintain a connection between intentionality and conscience, but without assuming any dogmatic metaphysical system, Richard Eldridge argues in Leading a Human Life that human persons are caught up in a continuing effort to bring their intentionality and powers of practical reason to full and fit expression. Contrary to the claims of both dogmatism and naturalism, human life remains haunted by the question, "How might I, in interaction with those around me, effectively form and choose a life of expressive freedom?" Eldridge reads Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations as a sustained, self-interrogative internal monologue that is concerned continuously with this question, embracing both ethics and philosophy of mind. Its protagonist struggles to bring his powers of spontaneity into coherent expression in human life. By following this effort, we can find grounds for resisting underdescriptions of human life that rest on overly simple accounts of either thinking or right action. Leading a human life becomes a creative act, akin to writing a poem, of continuously seeking to overcome both complacency and skepticism. Eldridge's careful reconstruction of the central motive of Wittgenstein's work will influence all subsequent scholarship on it.

From Library Journal:

In contrast to those who see the later Wittgenstein's work as "unprofessional, or unreasoned, or grandiose," or as demonstrating the end of the need to ask ultimate questions, Eldridge (philosophy, Swarthmore) sees in it a profound drama that attempts to provide a philosophical understanding of the essence of human life. This drama unfolds, Eldridge argues, in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, where he tries to understand conceptual consciousness and give a unified account of meaning and understanding. This is a penetrating and insightful interpretation of Wittgenstein's thought?one that goes well beyond the usually straight-forward analytical treatments (although it is that, too) to encompass the broader questions of the nature of culture and human existence. For academic collections and readers highly conversant with contemporary philosophy.?Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0226203131
• ISBN 13: 9780226203133
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 307