Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion,9780312216429

Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion

by
ISBN13: 9780312216429
ISBN10: 0312216424
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 1998-12-15
Publisher(s): Palgrave Macmillan
List Price: $192.58

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Summary

In the first full-length analysis of Wittgenstein's Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, Brian R. Clack presents a fresh and innovative interpretation of Wittgenstein's conception of religion. While previous commentators have tended to sideline the Remarks on Frazer, Clack shows how the key to Wittgenstein's thought on religion lies in these remarks on primitive magico-religious observances. This book shows that Wittgenstein neither embraces expressivism, as it is generally assumed, nor straightforwardly denies instrumentalism. Focusing instead on Wittgenstein's suggestion that magic is somehow akin to metaphysics, a view of ritual as the spontaneous expression of human beings (conceived as "ceremonial animals") is presented.

Author Biography

Brian R. Clack is Tutor in Philosophy at St. Clare's International College in Oxford.

Table of Contents

Preface ix
Introduction
1 Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion
3(18)
1.1 Wittgenstein and Religion
3(3)
1.2 The Golden Bough
6(6)
1.3 Wittgenstein and The Golden Bough
12(9)
Part I Expressivism 21(32)
2 Wittgenstein's 'Expressivism'
21(16)
2.1 The Seeds of 'Wittgenstein's Expressivism'
22(6)
2.2 The Blossoming of the Expressive Theory
28(6)
2.3 Beattie's Form of Expressivism
34(3)
3 The Possibility of Expressivism
37(16)
3.1 The Dynamics of Expressivism
37(7)
3.2 Wittgenstein's Philosophy and the Possibility of Expressivism
44(9)
Part II Methodology: Description and Explanation 53(54)
4 Perspicuous Representation
53(26)
4.1 The Ideal of Perspicuity in Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy
55(9)
4.2 Perspicuous Representations and Magico-Religious Phenomena
64(9)
4.3 Perspicuous Representation a 'Making Clear'
73(6)
5 The Prohibition on Explanation
79(14)
5.1 Religion 'Without Explanation'
79(2)
5.2 The Primitive Reaction
81(5)
5.3 Explaining the Ritual Impulse
86(7)
6 The Frontiers of the Remarks
93(14)
6.1 Discontinuity Theses
93(6)
6.2 The Remarks on Frazer and the Study of Religion
99(8)
Part III The Natural History of a Ceremonial Animal 107(70)
7 'Metaphysics as a Kind of Magic'
107(28)
7.1 The Poetic Conception: Wittgenstein, Chesterton, Ernst
107(5)
7.2 Wittgenstein, Magic and Metaphysics
112(13)
7.3 `Profound, Profound': The Philosophy in Rumpelstiltskin
125(4)
7.4 Wittgenstein and Frazer: Beyond Expressivism and Instrumentalism
129(6)
8 Frazerian Reflections: Wittgenstein on Beltane and Human Sacrifice
135(20)
8.1 The Festival of Beltane
135(4)
8.2 A Denial of Historical Understanding?
139(5)
8.3 Something Deep and Sinister
144(4)
8.4 A Savage and Ceremonial Animal
148(7)
9 'The Collapse into the Inorganic'
155(22)
9.1 'If fleas developed a rite it would be based on the dog'
156(5)
9.2 Expression-Media
161(5)
9.3 'A whole mythology is deposited in our language'
166(4)
9.4 Conclusion: 'I am not a religious man...'
170(7)
Notes 177(7)
Bibliography 184(13)
Index 197

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