The Pursuit of an Authentic Philosophy : Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Everyday

"Superficially, Wittgenstein and Heidegger seem worlds apart: they worked in different philosophical traditions, seemed mostly ignorant of one another's work, and Wittgenstein's terse aphorisms in plain language could not be farther stylistically from Heidegger's difficult prose. Nevertheless, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and Heidegger's Being and Time share a number of striking parallels. In particular, this book shows that both authors manifest a similar concern with authenticity. David Egan develops this position in three stages. Part One explores the emphasis both philosophers place on the everyday, and how this emphasis brings with it a methodological focus on recovering what we already know rather than advancing novel theses. Part Two argues that the dynamic of authenticity and inauthenticity in Being and Time finds homologies in Philosophical Investigations. Here Egan particularly articulates and defends a conception of authenticity in Wittgenstein that emphasizes the responsiveness and reciprocity of play. Part Three considers how both philosophers' conceptions of authenticity apply reflexively to their own work: each is concerned not only with the question of what it means to exist authentically but also with the question of what it means to do philosophy authentically. For both authors, the problematic of authenticity is intimately linked to the question of philosophical method."-- Provided by publisher Cover The Pursuit of an Authentic Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Everyday Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents Conventions Used in the Book Works by Wittgenstein Works by Heidegger Introduction PART ONE: Average Everydayness 1: Grammar and Ontology 1.1. ‘One can step into the same river twice’ 1.2. Grammatical and Empirical Investigations 1.3. ‘Not to present the matter as if there were something one couldn’t do’ 1.4. The Sideways Perspective 1.5. Heidegger and the Ontological Difference 1.6. Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Everyday 2: Being-in-the-World and Forms of Life 2.1. The Analysis of Dasein as Fundamental Ontology 2.2. Readiness-to-Hand and Presence-at-Hand 2.3. The Question of Priority 2.4. Wittgenstein, Cavell, and Criteria 2.5. Forms of Life 2.6. Words and the World 3: Attunement and Being-With 3.1. Attunement 3.2. Wittgenstein’s ‘We’ 3.3. Wittgenstein and Necessity 3.4. Being-With and das Man 3.5. Interpreting Heidegger on das Man 3.6. Das Man and Distantiality PART TWO: Authentic Everydayness 4: Anxiety, Scepticism, and Rule Following 4.1. Heidegger: Inauthenticity and Falling 4.2. Heidegger: Anxiety and Uncanniness 4.3. Wittgenstein: Explanations and Rule Following 4.4. Wittgensteinian Scepticism and Heideggerian Anxiety 5: Authenticity and the Everyday 5.1. Kripke’s Wittgenstein 5.2. An ‘Authentic’ Alternative 5.3. Kripke’s Heidegger 5.4. Conscience and Resoluteness 5.5. Wittgenstein’s Bedrock 5.6. Authentic Everydayness 5.7. ‘Therapeutic’ and ‘Existential’ Wittgensteins 6: Authenticity and Play 6.1. Wittgenstein’s Language-Game Analogy 6.2. The Scene of Instruction 6.3. Play and Projection 6.4. Improvisation as a Model of Authenticity 6.5. Sophistry and Spoilsports 6.6. Receptivity and Responsiveness in Being and Time 6.7. Authentic Philosophy PART THREE: The Pursuit of An Authentic Philosophy 7: Heidegger’s Pursuit of Authenticity in Philosophy 7.1. The Problematic of Realism and Idealism 7.2. Heidegger and the ‘Problem of Reality’ 7.3. The Problem with Assertions 7.4. Formal Indication 7.5. Truth and Untruth 7.6. Heidegger’s Dependency Claim 7.7. The Form of Formal Indication 8: Wittgenstein’s Pursuit of Authenticity in Philosophy 8.1. Ordinary Language and Terms of Criticism 8.2. Hiddenness and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion 8.3. Wittgenstein on the Problematic of Realism and Idealism 8.4. Pictures and Objects of Comparison 8.5. Pictures and Aesthetic Criticism 8.6. Truth and Untruth in Wittgenstein’s Pictures 8.7. Thought Experiments and Questions 8.8. The Dialogical Form of Wittgenste in’sInvestigations Conclusion Bibliography Index "Superficially, Wittgenstein and Heidegger seem worlds apart: they worked in different philosophical traditions, were mostly ignorant of one another’s work, and Wittgenstein’s terse aphorisms in plain language could not be farther stylistically from Heidegger’s difficult prose. Nevertheless, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and Heidegger’s Being and Time share a number of striking parallels. In particular, this book argues that both authors manifest a similar concern with authenticity. The argument develops in three stages. Part One explores the emphasis both philosophers place on the everyday, and how this emphasis brings with it a methodological focus on recovering what we already know rather than advancing novel theses. Part Two argues that the dynamic of authenticity and inauthenticity in Being and Time finds homologies in Philosophical Investigations. In particular, the book articulates and defends a conception of authenticity in Wittgenstein that emphasizes the responsiveness and reciprocity of play. Part Three considers how both philosophers’ conceptions of authenticity apply reflexively to their own work: both are concerned not only with the question of what it means to exist authentically but also with the question of what it means to do philosophy authentically. For both authors, the problematic of authenticity is intimately linked to the question of philosophical method." -- University Press Scholarship Online Superficially, Wittgenstein and Heidegger seem worlds apart: they worked in different philosophical traditions, were mostly ignorant of one another’s work, and Wittgenstein’s terse aphorisms in plain language could not be farther stylistically from Heidegger’s difficult prose. Nevertheless, Wittgenstein’s __Philosophical Investigations__ and Heidegger’s __Being and Time__ share a number of striking parallels. In particular, this book argues that both authors manifest a similar concern with authenticity. The argument develops in three stages. Part One explores the emphasis both philosophers place on the everyday, and how this emphasis brings with it a methodological focus on recovering what we already know rather than advancing novel theses. Part Two argues that the dynamic of authenticity and inauthenticity in __Being and Time__ finds homologies in __Philosophical Investigations__. In particular, the book articulates and defends a conception of authenticity in Wittgenstein that emphasizes the responsiveness and reciprocity of play. Part Three considers how both philosophers’ conceptions of authenticity apply reflexively to their own work: both are concerned not only with the question of what it means to exist authentically but also with the question of what it means to do philosophy authentically. For both authors, the problematic of authenticity is intimately linked to the question of philosophical method. David Egan offers an original comparative study of Wittgenstein and Heidegger, identifying a similar concern with authenticity in their work. By examining their divergent ideas on how to exist and philosophize authentically, Egan demonstrates Wittgenstein and Heidegger's continued relevance to contemporary thought in a novel way.