Reference As Action Space And Time In Later Wittgenstein
Description
About the Book
This work projects the later Wittgenstein as dissolving the unwanted cleavage between reference and description through a uniquely original route that also outgrows the traditional dichotomy between the descriptive and non-descriptive theories of reference. Following a nuanced track of arguments, the author argues that the supposed primacy of reference vis-à-vis the optional and indeterminate character of description (or meaning) virtually feeds on a containment model of space and time. Objects or referents lie smugly encased in neat space-time boundaries that serve as static and irrevocable foundations-capable of receiving a vast range of alternative descriptions and withdrawals. The ontology of such pre-semantic referents throw up a parallel otology of actions-where the latter also come to be seen as brute physical events with a bare space-time outline over and above their various intentional or adverbial descriptions.
This work seeks to break through such uninspiring splits between reference and description by synthesizing Wittgenstein’s treatment of these notions with those of space, time and action. A systematically detailed exposition of Wittgenstein’s arguments against the inert and external character of space shows actions not as bare space-time extensions, but as richly qualitative blends of such putative physical events with their intentions and modalities. Overall this exercise presents a graphic depiction of actions as not being constrained by real lumps of objects in space, but as breaking, bending and fusing space-time into objects and their interrelations, thereby suturing description and reference together in a seamless complex.
About the Author
Enakshi Ray Mitra did her PhD in Philosophy from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, in 2004. She has been teaching in the Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi since 2005. Broadly speaking, her areas of research and teaching include analytic philosophy, philosophy of language, logic, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action. She has published widely in these areas. Her special interest remains the philosophy of later Wittgenstein. A book titled Later Wittgenstein on Language and Mathematics: A Non-Foundational Narration was published b Indian Institute of Advanced Study in 2017.
Features
- : Reference As Action Space And Time In Later Wittgenstein
- : Enakshi Ray Mitra
- : Indian Institute of Advanced Study
