Abstract
This chapter is composed of a series of writing fragments that functions as personal meditations on various themes in Wittgenstein’s work as they find resonance in this author’s professional and personal life: as educational philosopher, educator, and psychotherapist. These themes focus on human suffering induced by being captured in reification of discursive thoughts and propositional knowledge claims, including knowledge claims based on seeing ourselves as predominantly causality bound . In commenting on numerous passages from Wittgenstein’s works, possibilities of human liberation are sought through seeing ourselves anew as beings capable of exercising human freedom and responsibility . Along the way, nuanced and critical clarifications are made about the distinction between desire and craving, and between fulfillment and satisfaction; instrumental reason serving causality-bound thinking; learning that cultivates sensibility and judgment; Wittgensteinian’s pedagogy that resists objectification of students; critical importance of ethics and aesthetics to human liberation and flourishing; and interconnectedness, or unity, of philosophy, therapy, and education when seen through Wittgensteinian’s lens.
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Notes
- 1.
Following convention, titles for Wittgenstein’s works are abbreviated (CV = Culture and Value, LC = Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Beliefs, LW1 = Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology , PI = Philosophical Investigations, TLP = Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Z = Zettel), with section (§) or page number (p.), with full citation and initials (e.g., PI) in the References.
- 2.
Derek Lin, a practicing Daoist, whose translation of Dao De Jing I quoted from, elucidates the first two lines thusly: “ … we can never understand the Tao through the intellect alone. We must feel it. Talking about it can be useful but never replace the actual experience of living it. Not only is the Tao beyond the power of spoken words to describe, but it is also beyond the power of written words to define. That which can be defined is limited by the definition, and the Tao transcends all limitations.” (Lin 2006, p. 2)
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Acknowledgments
My sincere gratitude goes to Jeffrey Stickney, Co-editor of this volume, who has been infinitely patient with me as I struggled this spring with my overwhelming work. I am also indebted to him for his invaluable help with Wittgenstein scholarship.
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Bai, H. (2017). Meditation on Wittgenstein and Education. In: Peters, M., Stickney, J. (eds) A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3136-6_27
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