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This book is a collection of essays motivated by a "cultural" and biographical reading of Wittgenstein. It includes some new essays and some that were originally published in Educational Philosophy and Theory. The book focuses on the concept of "technoscience", and the relevance of Wittgenstein's work for philosophy of technology which amplifies Lyotard's reading and provides a critique of education as an increasingly technology-led enterprise. It includes a distinctive view on the ethics of reading Wittgenstein and the ethics of suicide that shaped him. It also examines the reception and engagement with Wittgenstein's work in French philosophy with a chapter on post-analytic philosophy of education as a choice between Richard Rorty and Jean-François Lyotard. Peters examines Wittgenstein's academic life at Cambridge University and his involvement as a student and faculty member in the Moral Sciences Club. Finally, the book provides an understanding of Wittgensteinian styles of reasoning and the concept of worldview. Is it possible to escape the picture that holds us captive? This constitutes a challenging introduction to Wittgenstein's work for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of education, technology and philosophy.
List of contents
Introduction: Truth, Value and the Philosopher as Cultural Physician 1. Wittgenstein, Lyotard and the Philosophy of Technoscience 2. The ethics of reading Wittgenstein 3. Wittgenstein as Exile: A philosophical topography 4. Wittgenstein and the ethics of suicide: Homosexuality and Jewish self-hatred in fin de siècle Vienna 5. Wittgenstein and post‐analytic philosophy of education: Rorty or Lyotard? 6. Wittgenstein at Cambridge: Philosophy as a way of life (Michael A. Peters and Jeff Stickney) 7. ‘A picture holds us captive’: Wittgenstein and the German tradition of Weltanschuung 8. Philosophy as Pedagogy: Wittgenstein’s Styles of Thinking 9. Kinds of Thinking, Styles of Reasoning. Postscript: Wittgenstein's anti-philosophy Index
About the author
Michael A. Peters is Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, PR China, China and Emeritus Professor in Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is currently also Senior Research Fellow at the University of Auckland where he held a Personal Chair (2000–2005). He is the executive editor of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory and the author or editor of several books on Wittgenstein.
Summary
This book is a collection of essays curated by Michael Peters and motivated by a ‘cultural’ reading of Wittgenstein.
