Forms of Life, Forms of Reality

Authors

  • Piergiorgio Donatelli Sapienza Università di Roma

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15845/nwr.v4i0.3374

Keywords:

Wittgenstein Ludwig, form of life, background, ethics, realism, Murdoch Iris

Abstract

The article explores aspects of the notion of forms of life in the Wittgensteinian tradition especially following Iris Murdoch’s lead. On the one hand, the notion signals the hardness and inexhaustible character of reality, as the background needed in order to make sense of our lives in various ways. On the other, the hardness of reality is the object of a moral work of apprehension and deepening to the point at which its distinctive character dissolves into the family of connections we have gained for ourselves. The two movements of thought are connected and necessary.

Author Biography

Piergiorgio Donatelli, Sapienza Università di Roma

Piergiorgio Donatelli is Professor of Moral Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome. He has worked on the theory and the history of ethics, and on (among others) Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, J.S. Mill, Michel Foucault. He is the author of several books and many articles and chapters in Italian, English and French. His recent publications explore the issues tied to the notion of human life: La vita umana in prima persona (2012); Manières d’être humain. Une autre philosophie morale (2015). He has published a history of ethics: Etica. I classici, le teorie e le linee evolutive (2015).

References

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Published

2015-10-06

Issue

SPECIAL ISSUE (Oct 2015), Wittgenstein and Forms of Life (guest editors D. Moyal-Sharrock and P. Donatelli).

Section

Special Issue

License

NWR uses the Creative Commons license CC-BY.

Vol. 1-3 used CC-BY-NC-SA. The collected works copyright ownership for Vol. 1-2 were shared by Nordic Wittgenstein Society and ontos Verlag/De Gruyter.