"There is nothing to explain": Wittgenstein on scientism and mathematics

APSE-CEU-IVC Talks

The Philosophy Department of the Central European University, the Institute Vienna Circle and the Unit for Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology (of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna) are jointly organizing a series of talks this term.

Date: 24/11/2022

Time: 15h45

This talk is going to be a hybrid event, in-person at NIG (SR 3A) and can be followed via online Plattform.

Online Plattform:

Access:

univienna.zoom.us/j/61475205762

You can also log into our meetings through the Zoom application (rather than by clicking the link above), by using the following credentials:

Meeting-ID: 614 7520 5762

Password: 264065

No registered accounts are required, it's enough to click on the link and enter your name. Chrome or Firefox browsers work best.

Abstract:

This talk will sketch Wittgenstein's view on the relation between philosophy (as he understood it) and empirical science (as he understood it). I will focus on what he takes to be the main difference between the methods of these two disciplines: 'grammatical' investigation, and the construction of explanatory theories, respectively. Special attention will be paid to avoiding the confusion between science and scientism; while Wittgenstein had a rather neutral attitude towards the former, his target is the latter. I shall argue that for him the very point of doing philosophy is precisely to avoid engaging in an activity similar to that of the scientists, namely theory-construction. This is a 'therapeutic' approach -- there is no need to worry about providing explanations, since "there is nothing to explain" (PI 126) -- and can be illustrated in various ways; however, in this talk I can only discuss how it works on mathematics.