Augustine and Wittgenstein

Contributions by Myles Burnyeat, Kim Paffenroth, Brian R. Clack, Espen Dahl, Chad Engelland, Alexander R. Eodice, David Goodill, Blackfriars, University of Oxford, UK, Garry Hagberg, Miles Hollingworth, Erika Kidd, Duncan Richter, Caleb Thompson Edited by Kim Paffenroth, Alexander R. Eodice, John Doody

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 September 2018

Length of book:

216 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498585279

This collection examines the relationship between Augustine and Wittgenstein and demonstrates the deep affinity they share, not only for the substantive issues they treat but also for the style of philosophizing they employ. Wittgenstein saw certain salient Augustinian approaches to concepts like language-learning, will, memory, and time as prompts for his own philosophical explorations, and he found great inspiration in Augustine’s highly personalized and interlocutory style of writing philosophy. Each in his own way, in an effort to understand human experience more fully, adopts a mode of philosophizing that involves questioning, recognizing confusions, and confronting doubts. Beyond its bearing on such topics as language, meaning, knowledge, and will, their analysis extends to the nature of religious belief and its fundamental place in human experience. The essays collected here consider a broad range of themes, from issues regarding teaching, linguistic meaning, and self-understanding to miracles, ritual, and religion.

This excellent collection of essays is poised to become the standard first resource for scholars and students examining connections between Augustine and Wittgenstein. These ten essays (one classic and nine newly written for the volume) address a diverse set of problems linking the two thinkers, including Wittgenstein’s interpretation of Augustine, the role of ostention in language learning, difficulties concerning meaningful speech about ultimate reality, the perception and interpretation of miracles, human sexuality and the ritual imagination, the origins of religiosity, the relation between time and memory, and understanding the recalcitrant will. The collection provides a much needed scholarly resource for those interested in Wittgenstein’s relation to Augustine as well as creative and critical examination of links and divergences between the two philosophers.