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Wittgenstein, Learning and the Expressive Formation of Emotions

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A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education

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Abstract

The topic of this chapter is Wittgenstein’s view on the learning of emotional concepts. The concept of learning, however, covers a motley of processes, and we should resist the impulse to force them all into a single mold or two. Hence, the modest aim here is to explore only some of the characteristic ways in which we learn emotions . It is not meant to be complete, nor to provide much depth or detail, but seeks to introduce at least some of the elements in a perspicuous representation of the logical grammar of emotion learning. On many readings of Wittgenstein , his philosophy has most to teach us about practical learning, since he is centrally concerned with knowing-how, tacit knowledge, and practical mastery. Here, however, we emphasize Wittgenstein’s comparison between learning how to recognize emotional patterns and learning how to distinguish styles of music . The leading idea will be that the education of the self is constituted by an interplay between taking a first person perspective and a third person perspective on oneself.

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), LC = Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Beliefs, LFM = Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, LW1 = Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology , Volume 1, LW2 = Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, Volume II, PI = Philosophical Investigations, RFM = Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, RPP = Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Z = Zettel), with section (§) or page number (p.), with full citation and initials (e.g., BB) in the References.

  2. 2.

    Wittgenstein’s term is “Gemütsbewegungen,” which is not the same as but still quite close to “emotions ,” and he includes in this category both typical emotions like joy, sadness, sorrow, grief, anger, fear, and love , and less typical ones like surprise, admiration, and hope (Schulte 2009).

  3. 3.

    A famous parallel and possible influence is, of course, Heidegger’s concept of “Angst,” which Wittgenstein said that he could very well understand (Wittgenstein et al. 1979). Whereas fear for Heidegger is always fear of something, anxiety does not have an object in the same sense: it is, as it were, a fear of everything and nothing (Heidegger 1996).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Steinar Bøyum

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  1. Steinar Bøyum
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Correspondence to Steinar Bøyum .

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  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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Bøyum, S. (2017). Wittgenstein, Learning and the Expressive Formation of Emotions. In: Peters, M., Stickney, J. (eds) A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3136-6_28

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