Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne
Faculty Member, Philosophie
Lecturer (ATER)
EXeCO
Thesis Title: “Thinking and speaking by means of pictures in the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein: Models, schemas, types”
Christiane Chauviré
About
Summary of my PhD:
Across the different periods of his philosophical production, Ludwig Wittgenstein has tried to investigate the link between thought or discourse on the one hand, and pictorial representation on the other hand. In his first work (the Tractatus logico-philosophicus), he introduces a « picture-theory » of propositions, claiming that the elementary propositions of language depict or model the facts they express. In his later philosophy, Wittgenstein renounces this picture-theory in its strict formulation, but maintains the legitimacy of a pictorial account of thought and discourse. Philosophical thinking, in particular, has to rely on “typical” or “primitive” pictures. These, in turn, serve as a corner-stone for a morphological method inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The aim of this method is to gain « synoptic views » (i. e. clear and intuitive pictures) of our grammar. Wittgenstein’s philosophy, on this respect, is both a philosophy of pictures, and a philosophy which proceeds itself by means of pictures.
Contact Information
