Young Researcher, Seminar II (Prof. Dr. Adrian Haddock)
Language, World, and Limits
Die Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache statt.
Is it possible for the mind to know its own limits? Wittgenstein seemed to think that it was not. In the Preface to his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, he wrote: “in order to draw a limit to thought, we should have to be able to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e., we should have to think what cannot be thought)”. Wittgenstein’s remark raises the question of whether the mind can know itself to be finite at all. This question lies at the heart of the work of the contemporary British philosopher A.W. (Adrian) Moore (currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford). Moore explores the significance and the difficulty of this question and defends the idea that the mind can know its own finitude, but only in knowledge that is ineffable, in that it does not have the form of what can be thought. In this seminar, we shall study Moore’s work in detail, focussing especially on his 1997 book Points of View, and his recent collection of essays Language, World, and Limits. We shall also read some of the primary texts to which Moore refers. The seminar will run across the Winter and the Summer semesters and will conclude with an “Author Meets Critics” conference with Adrian Moore, to be held in Leipzig in June 2024. A detailed seminar and reading plan will be available at the beginning of the Winter semester. This will specify which topics will be discussed in Adrian Haddock's seminar, and which in Jonas Held's seminar (in German).
A course reader will be made available at the beginning of the semester.
- Trainer/in: Berge Angela
- Trainer/in: Haddock Adrian