Wittgenstein

Question 1

What is distinctive about Wittgenstein’s treatment of Solipsism (according to David Pears)

Answer 1

He focuses on the identity of the subject, not the separation between subject and world e.g., via ‘sense date’ ‘ veil of ideas’.

e.g., solipsists are often concerned with the fact that they cannot establish the existence of physical things or people.

Question 2

What Dilemma does Wittgenstein offer to the solipsists? (According to David Pears)

Answer 2

The doctrine either: self refutes or is empty

Question 3

Why might solipsism, according to Wittgenstein, refute itseld?

Answer 3

Because the only way to independently identify the ego is to attach it to a body, but the body lies outside of conscious experience.

Question 4

How does Wittgenstein differentiate between the ego and the soul?

Answer 4

The soul is an entity with ordinary psychological properties. The Ego is a metaphysical subject and is the boundary of the world.

Question 5

What metaphysical subject is the boundary of the world, according to Wittgenstein?

Answer 5

The ego

Question 6

What is the ego not, according to wittgenstein.

Answer 6

An entity with psychological properties
A human being
The human body
Ant introspectable entity