PHIL5805 Readings from Wittgenstein

The course will be based on a close reading of parts of the Philosophical Investigations and some other late work by Wittgenstein. Much of the course will be devoted to a close reading of sections from the second part of the Investigations, mainly on issues in philosophy of mind and perception. Among other things, we shall read section xi, which contains Wittgenstein’s discussion of aspect seeing (duck-rabbit). If possible, I shall try to adjust the reading material to students’ interests. In the process, we shall learn how to read the Investigations, this most influential and controversial philosophical text of the twentieth century.