Topics in Metaphysics
PHIL 390
Spring 2027
| Section:
01
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| This course may be repeated for credit. |
Can a snooker ball be red all over, and yet, at the very same moment, be blue all over? Do you think that¿s not possible? Can that snooker ball be both entirely made of ivory and, simultaneously, not entirely made of ivory? Is this possible? In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein seems to have held that both are impossible, and, moreover, impossible for exactly the same reason: both are contradictions of logic. Some eight years later, in ¿Remarks on Logical Form¿ he seemed to change his mind: one primary color¿s co-instantiation with another is not a logical contradiction, and yet nevertheless is an impossibility. This begins an unraveling and reconstitution of the philosophical framework of the Tractatus, leading towards the ¿grammatical¿ investigations, and exercises in imagining ways of life, of Wittgenstein¿s later philosophy. In this seminar we follow the first part of Wittgenstein¿s journey, starting with the conceptions of possibility, necessity, and logic of the Tractatus, and tracing their transformations in ¿Remarks on Logical Form¿ and Philosophical Remarks. We¿ll attempt to unearth how and why, in particular, Wittgenstein moved away from more precisely delineated notations towards everyday language as the site of philosophical practice. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA PHIL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: PHIL293 |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
| SECTION 01 |
| Instructor(s): Shieh,Sanford Times: .M..... 07:10PM-10:00PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 4 | | |
| | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 3 | FR: 0 |
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