Wittgenstein as educator
pp. 43-61
in: Michael A. Peters, Jeff Stickney (eds), A companion to Wittgenstein on education, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
In Wittgenstein's later writings , he occasionally notes (parenthetically) that his remarks pertain to grammatical problems instead of psychological or causal ones (Z §§318 & 419). Briefly discussing Wittgenstein's own elementary teaching experience to provide background , contrast is drawn between issues of efficacy in teaching and normative training into regular patterns or customs of usage. Following Josè Medina , I bring home a point of particular significance to analytic philosophy of education concerning adept initiation into practices : what Wittgenstein refers to as "mastery of techniques' (PI §199) requires facility and autonomy within the rules not explicable on causal terms, nor diminished by its origins in normative training. Realizing this avenue through training does not however undermine the rational elements of teaching and learning —the space of reasons—sought by the analytic school. Etiological problems connected to teaching and learning are then distinguished from philosophical issues surrounding ranges of meaningful use and degrees of arbitrariness in relation to rule-following . The conclusion, earlier articulated by Standish (1995), is that Wittgenstein's later philosophy draws a sharp distinction between any possible 'science " of education and his therapeutic concept of philosophy as the dissolution of grammatical problems.
