Abstract
Peter Winch begins his contribution to the volume Einheit und Vielheit, “Unity: Prerequisite or Demand?” by questioning the apparent presuppositions of the conference organizer(s), that there might be scientifically determinable foundations for a universal human morality. “I do not know exactly how Professor Schnädelbach himself conceives this matter”, he concedes. But Winch’s preferred model, if you will permit me something obvious, is “[T]hese phenomena have no one thing in common in virtue of which we use the same word for all” (Wittgenstein 1953/2009, §65). Wittgenstein continues, “if you look, …, … you won’t see something that is common to all, but similarities, affinities, and a whole series of them at that. To repeat: don’t think, but look!” (§66). And the question’s sense will rest in the end on humans’ primitive reactions, not on metaphysical presuppositions about the One. This is, in Wittgenstein’s and Winch’s hands, a fundamental challenge to the standard history and practice of philosophy. In his 1987 paper, “Einheit: Voraussetzung oder Forderung”, Winch applies these principles to the example of an empirical foundationalism, which expects the social sciences to discover ‘cultural universals’ on which to base universal ethical values, thus giving ethics a scientific basis. Using a notion of primitive reactions which he derives from Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Winch argues that such a scientific foundation for ethics is not conceivable. Employing an unconventional analysis of Plato’s ‘Socratic paradox’, he explains why the ethical form of life which we may all have in common is not sufficient to determine correct ethical content.
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Notes
- 1.
This is one conventional reading of that history. There are many other starting points. Compare, e.g., Chike Jeffers on African philosophy, or Jonathan Rée’s Witcraft.
- 2.
- 3.
See Winch (1972), which includes “Moral Integrity”, his inaugural lecture in the Chair of Philosophy at King’s College, University of London (1968).
- 4.
I should add that Peter Winch supervised my doctoral thesis at the University of London (1970). I have maintained a steady admiration for the firm but very helpful guidance which he provided me, and for the continually engaging work which he produced for the rest of his career.
- 5.
This is true, too, of other papers of his which were written as responses to the special topic of a conference. See, e.g., “Text and Context” (Winch 1987, 18–32).
- 6.
Winch (1990, 2/94. (In my text I shall insert page numbers when I quote from my translation of Winch’s “Einheit: Voraussetzung oder Forderung?”. The translation is in unpublished typescript, so I shall include a second number which will refer to the corresponding page in the original German publication).
- 7.
My late colleague, David Braybrooke, is a leading exponent of such a view. See Braybrooke (1987). Another case for consideration is presented by Julia Annas (2004). She begins by invoking the Virtues Project, which, without philosophical backing, just solves many inter-cultural problems in schools. They list 52 useful virtues respected in 7 world spiritual traditions. No Consequentialist Project, they claim, has anything like the same success. Is this an empirical basis for a universalist virtue ethics?
- 8.
David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book 3 “Of Morals”, §1. Of course interpreters have much more to say. Cf., for example, Rachel Cohon’s entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/#io (accessed 20.3.2019).
- 9.
Winch, “Unity”, 2/94. The papers are “Human Nature”, and “Man and Society in Hobbes and Rousseau”, from Winch (1972), chapters 4 and 5.
- 10.
One may be reminded of the colloquial “Simandl” (little she-man) familiar in Austria and southern Germany.
- 11.
I have adapted the next few paragraphs from a related discussion in my paper, Burns (2013).
- 12.
From this remarkable things follow: e.g., that it is not possible to obey a rule ‘privately’.
- 13.
These terms are derived from Wittgenstein’s intense lecture on aesthetic judgement, as reported by G. E. Moore (1993, 104–107).
- 14.
An early version of this paper is to be published, as “A Philosopher Crosses the Atlantic: Peter Winch on Philosophy and Ethics”, in the proceedings of a conference held in Vienna in 2018. I have extensively reworked that paper, and doubled its size, in preparing this essay. I am especially grateful to Lynette Reid for help with reading and interpreting “Unity: Prerequisite or Demand?” in a Winchian spirit. She is not responsible, however, for my enthusiasms and blind-spots.
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Burns, S. (2020). Winch on First Philosophy: Unity and Multiplicity. In: Campbell, M., Reid, L. (eds) Ethics, Society and Politics: Themes from the Philosophy of Peter Winch. Nordic Wittgenstein Studies, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40742-1_14
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