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A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education pp 275–286Cite as

On “The Temptation to Attack Common Sense”

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Abstract

In The Blue Book (BB, pp. 58–59), Wittgenstein defends common sense as a guide for our thinking and as a relief from mental discomfort. It might stand as a powerful educational ideal. Wittgensteinian common sense is related to the practice of rule-following. While theories, practices and even norms evolve or change, the mastering of rule-following is what keeps us within the community and within the realm of reason, that is, within common sense. Stepping outside amounts to mental discomfort. There is, however, a downside: His attachment to ordinary language “as it is” might be considered a conservative by-product of this argument. Yet such an implication can be avoided. Common sense is a promising educational ideal—if only we do not take Wittgenstein too literally. It is an ideal that, in education today, is currently under attack from various sources.

A shorter version appears in the Wittgenstein section of the Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory (Springer, 2016), co-edited by Nicholas Burbules & Jeff Stickney (Michael A. Peters, Chief Editor).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following convention, titles for Wittgenstein’s works are abbreviated (BB = The Blue and Brown Books (Preliminary Notebooks), Z = Zettel, PI = Philosophical Investigations , OC = On Certainty, PO = Philosophical Occasions), with section (§) or page number (p.), with full citation and initials in the References.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Paul Standish for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Renia Gasparatou

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  1. Renia Gasparatou
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Correspondence to Renia Gasparatou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    Michael A. Peters

  2. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jeff Stickney

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Gasparatou, R. (2017). On “The Temptation to Attack Common Sense”. In: Peters, M., Stickney, J. (eds) A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3136-6_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3136-6_18

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