Wittgenstein’s ‘Expressivism’

Abstract

There is a broad consensus among commentators, both sympathetic and hostile, that the fundamental idea of the Remarks on Frazer is that magic and religion are essentially expressive activities. Illustrative of this is, first, a passage from theDanger of Words, where M. O’C. Drury writes:

Frazer thinks he can make clear the origin of the rites and ceremonies he describes by regarding them as primitive and erroneous scientific beliefs … Now Wittgenstein made it clear to me that on the contrary the people who practised these rites already possessed a considerable scientific achievement: agriculture, metalworking, building, etc., etc.; and the ceremonies existed alongside these sober techniques. They were not mistaken beliefs that produced the rites but the need to express something. (Drury 1973: x)