Overview
- Interprets Wittgenstein’s later pedagogical style of philosophy through the lens of his relationship to education, including his difficult experiences as an elementary teacher and university lecturer
- Portrays his later philosophy of language and its deep contextualization, showing how meaning is agreed upon in relation to our surrounding ‘background’: shared ‘bedrock’ certainties and ‘world-pictures’ we internalize through initiation into forms of life
- Addresses the current controversy around Wittgenstein’s use of the term ‘training’, dismissing readings of brute/animal training in favour of one that sheds light on how children are gradually enculturated into language usage, games, mathematical practices and aesthetic judgments
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education (BRIEFSEDUCAT)
Part of the book sub series: SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education (BRIEFSKEY)
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Table of contents (4 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
Dedicated to educators who are not philosophy specialists, this book offers an overview of the connections between Wittgenstein’s later philosophy and his own training and practice as an educator. Arguing for the centrality of education to Wittgenstein’s life and works, the authors resist any reduction of Wittgenstein’s philosophy to remarks on pedagogy while addressing the current controversy surrounding the role of training in the enculturation process. Significant events in his education and life are examined as the background for successful interpretation, without lending biographical details explanatory force. The book discusses the importance of Wittgenstein’s training and dismissal as an elementary teacher (1920-26) in light of his later, frequent use (1930s-40s) of many ‘scenes of instruction’ in his Cambridge lectures and notebooks. These depictions culminated in his now famous Philosophical Investigations -- a counter to his earlier philosophy in the Tractatus. Wittgenstein came to distinguish between empirical inquiries into how education, language or mathematics might ideally work, from grammatical studies of how we learn on the rough ground to normatively go-on as others do – often without explicit rules and with considerable degrees of ambiguity, for instance, in implementing new guidelines during a curriculum reform or in evaluating teachers. The book argues that Wittgenstein’s reflections on education -- spanning from mathematics training to the acquisition of language and cultivation of aesthetic appreciation -- are of central significance to both the man and his pedagogical style of philosophy.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Jeff Stickney is a Lecturer at the University of Toronto. He has taught graduate courses in Philosophy of Education and courses for Philosophy teachers training in secondary education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is the senior author and consultant on the Grade 12 Ontario text, Philosophy: Thinkers, Theories and Questions (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2011), and has taught philosophy extensively at Bayview Secondary School (York Region, Ontario). He recently supervised a Ph. D. dissertation in Philosophy of Education at the University of Toronto and is currently serving on a doctoral committee at York University. With Michael A. Peters he coedited A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education: Pedagogical Investigations (Springer 2017), and with Nicholas Burbules coedited the Wittgenstein section in the Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory (Springer; Chief Editor Michael A. Peters). Stickney presented at the Nordic Wittgenstein Society (Denmark, 2012), the 2015 PESGB Gregynog Conference “Orientations Towards Wittgenstein” (Wales), and organized panel discussions on Wittgenstein in 2016 for PES (Toronto) and PESGB (Oxford).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Wittgenstein’s Education: 'A Picture Held Us Captive’
Authors: Michael A. Peters, Jeff Stickney
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8411-9
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-10-8410-2Published: 22 February 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-981-10-8411-9Published: 14 February 2018
Series ISSN: 2211-1921
Series E-ISSN: 2211-193X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 117
Number of Illustrations: 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Educational Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, History of Philosophy