Wittgenstein’s Ethic of Perspicuity and the Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

Philosophy has been in crisis many times before. Sympathetic critics of philosophy have emerged throughout its history to set the field back on the right path or to provoke philosophers to consider their vocation. Today, in many colleges and universities in the United States and around the world, along with other liberal arts disciplines, philosophy is under increased scrutiny, not just from fellow philosophers who wish the best for it but from educational reformers who seek to transform higher education so that it is designed primarily to prepare students for employment in a competitive world. Philosophy, as with the other disciplines in the liberal arts, is at risk of being perceived as a non-essential feature of undergraduate education, except at the more elite institutions.¹ In contemplating the present dour circumstances facing philosophy, it is helpful to review earlier ‘dark times’.