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Some Remarks on Wittgenstein's Account of Religious Belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2010

Extract

Pupils' notes of some lectures on religious belief which Wittgenstein gave in 1938 have recently been published, and what I have to say is set against the background of these lectures. My title may suggest that there is a distinctive and precise account of religious belief which can be extracted from them and stated clearly for consideration. But I do not think that this is so. It is evident from these lectures that, in the subject of religious belief, Wittgenstein's prodigious capacity for puzzlement, in which Moore recognised the marks of genius, found full scope. But, at many points, it is not clear to me, at any rate, just how he is resolving – or would resolve – the puzzlement. So I am most certainly not setting myself up to explain ‘what Wittgenstein really meant’. However, like everything which we have from him, these lectures are fascinating, suggestive, provocative. And, at some hazard, I am going to offer a few observations on one or two of the points which he was, or appears to have been, making.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1968

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References

page 36 note 1 Wittgenstein, L., Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief (Oxford, 1966Google Scholar). Throughout this lecture the page-references enclosed in brackets are to that work.

page 45 note 1 See Hare, R. M., ‘Theology and Falsification’ in New Essays in Philosophical Theology (ed. Flew, and Maclntyre, ) (London, 1955Google Scholar); Evans, D. D., The Logic of Self Involvement (London, 1963Google Scholar); van Buren, P., The Secular Meaning of the Gospel (rev. ed. London, 1965Google Scholar).

page 47 note 1 The Concept of Prayer (London, 1965) p. 121Google Scholar.

page 51 note 1 I discuss some other aspects of the relationship between Wittgenstein's philosophy and religion in my small book, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Bearing of His Philosophy Upon Religious Belief (London, 1968Google Scholar).