Realism, Modernism and the Realistic Spirit: Diamond's Inheritance of Wittgenstein, Early and Late

Authors

  • Stephen Mulhall New College, Oxford

Keywords:

20th century philosophy, Wittgenstein Ludwig, Diamond Cora, modernism, ethics, religion, aesthetics, nonsense

Abstract

This paper argues that Cora Diamond's interpretation of Wittgenstein's early and later work, and her specific attempts to apply it in religious and ethical contexts, show a willingness to sacrifice elements of Wittgenstein's signature concepts to the demands of what she calls his 'realistic spirit'. The paper also argues that this willingness relates her project to a certain understanding of modernism in the arts.

Author Biography

Stephen Mulhall, New College, Oxford

Stephen Mulhall is Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. He previously held positions at All Souls College, Oxford and the University of Essex. His main research interests include Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Sartre and Nietzsche; ethics and the philosophy of religion; and the relation between philosophy and the arts (especially film and literature). Recent publications include Wittgenstein’s Private Language: Grammar, Nonsense, and Imagination in Philosophical Investigations §§ 243-315 (2006), The Conversation of Humanity (2007) and The Wounded Animal: J.M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality (2009).

References

Diamond, C., 1991. “Ethics, Imagination and the Method of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus”. In R. Heinrich and H. Vetter (eds.), Bilder der Philosophie, Wiener Reihe 5, pp. 55-90. Wien: Oldenbourg.

Diamond, C., 1991. The Realistic Spirit. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press.

Diamond, C., 2005. “Wittgenstein and Religious Belief: the Gulfs Between Us”. In D.Z. Phillips and M. von der Ruhr (eds.), Religion and Wittgenstein’s Legacy, pp. 99-137. London: Ashgate.

Diamond, C., 2006. “The Difficulty of Reality and the Difficulty of Philosophy”. In A. Crary and S. Shieh (eds.), Reading Cavell, pp. 98-118. London: Routledge.

Holland, R.F., 1980. “The Miraculous”. In Against Empiricism. Totowa, NJ.: Barnes and Noble.

Watt, I., 1957. The Rise of the Novel. London: Pimlico.

Wittgenstein, L., 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. C.K. Ogden and F.P. Ramsey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Wittgenstein, L., 1978. Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, ed. G. H. von Wright, Rush Rhees and G.E.M. Anscombe, trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2012): Volume 1 / Number 1 (Aug 2012), A. Pichler, S. Säätelä, Y. Neuman (eds.)

Section

Invited Paper

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.