Abstract
There is a well-known remark in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations which even some philosophers sympathetic to his work have found very hard to accept. It reads:
Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it.
For it cannot give it any foundation either.
It leaves everything as it is. (PI, i, para. 24)
Surely, it is said, that is carrying matters too far. Wittgenstein’s hyperbole should be excused as a harmless stylistic flourish.
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© 1993 D. Z. Phillips
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Phillips, D.Z. (1993). Religion in Wittgenstein’s Mirror. In: Wittgenstein and Religion. Swansea Studies in Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377035_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377035_15
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