I shall teach you differences. Wittgenstein
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This is an amended version of the annual phenomenology lecture given to the Philosophy Department Colloquium of Washington University in 1981. Since then it has benefited especially from the critical remarks of Karl Schuhmann.
Ludwig Wittgenstein in his attempt to choose appropriate mottoes for his prospective books (see my “The Significance of Mottoes in Wittgenstein's Major Works” inWittgenstein and His Impact on Contemporary Thought, Wien 1978, pp. 54–57) apparently considered several such possibilities for hisPhilosophical Investigations (apart from the one by the Austrian comedy writer Johann Nestroy). Accorrding to M. O'C Drury's recollections, as reported in G.P. Baker and P.M. Hacker,Wittgenstein's Understanding and Meaning (University of Chicago Press 1980), p. 18, he also thought of using a line supposedly from Shakespeare'sKing Lear: “I'll teach you differences.” Actually this line does not occur verbatim in the original text (Act I, Scene IV line 128) where the Fool simply asks Lear whether he knows the difference between a bitter fool and a sweet fool. However, Lear's acceptance of the offer (“teach me!”) is not followed up by a direct demonstration, let alone by Wittgenstein's motto. It was possibly this slip of memory which resulted in Wittgenstein's invention of a new motto. Whatever made him drop it, it would have expressed precisely one of his major achievements. It would have fitted particularly his work during the transition period between theTractatus and theInvestigations when he himself considered characterizing his work as “phenomenology” in a sense comparable, though not identical with that of the Phenomenological Movement (see my “Wittgenstein Calls His Own Philosophy ‘Phenomenology’: One More Supplement to ‘The Puzzle of Wittgenstein'sPhänomenologie’,”Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 13 (1982), pp. 296–298). But it also applies to the kind of study which I am trying to demonstrate here, i.e., to “teach” in the etymological sense of the verb “to teach” as showing relevant differences in the phenomena.
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Spiegelberg, H. Three types of the given: The encountered, the search-found and the striking. Husserl Stud 1, 69–78 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01569207
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01569207