A Study On Philosophical Therapy, A Comparison Between Wittgenstein And Austin

Wittgenstein holds that the task of philosophy is a therapy of thought: Philosophy is therapeutic activity,which is a battle against the bewitchmengt of our intelligence by means of language.Traditionally,the end of philosophy seems to be construction of theories,as result, "philosophy" and "theory" means the same on many occasions. This notion of philosophy is still hold by many people. Wittgenstein ,however,says that we may not advance any kind of theory.Austin shares with Wittgenstein many similar notion of philosophy. Unlike Wittgenstein, Austin would not claims that therapy is the sole task of philosophy. But he will agree that therapy of thought is an important task of philosophy. His book sense and sensibilia is a paradigm of philosophical therapy. This book also shows that Austin has deep doubt against "philosophical theories" .The paradigm of theory construction is science. The basic way of theory-construction is reducism which reduces complicated phenomena to some simple elements and then reconstructs the world out of these simple elements. In this mode of thought, each thing will no long keep its nature,but,what we question about in philosophy is just the whatness of each thing. Wittgenstein says, essence is expressed by grammar, philosophical investigation is directed not towards phenomena,but towards the kind of statements that we make about phenomena. The task of philosophy is to understand the logic relationship between concepts , and to put to order the wisdom embedded in language. The wisdom embedded in language ,of course,lies in the whole language, which can not be generalized through some propositions and theories.Hence,philosophy lies in the whole language,and the task of philosophy is to dissovle philosophical problems by clarification of what does and what does not make sense.The analytical philosophy tends to have no interest in the historicity of concepts.However,the reflection of concepts in several thousands of years has formed a tradition and the usages of concepts in this tradition are more or less different from the ordinary usages .The historicity of concepts are kept in the tradition and more important than the ordinay usages,so that it is not enough to merely analyse the ordinay usges. Austin is also a classical philogist ,and he cherishes more regard on the historicity of concepts than Wittgenstein.This dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter one,introduction, offers a general account of what motivates our research and what we are going to research.Chapter two presents a detailed account of their notion of language. The popular notion of language is referentialism,which holds that a word refers to an object and a sentence describes an event. This notion brings about a series of philosophical confusions,such as paired opposites of body/mind,internal/external, fact/value,true/false. Wittgenstein and Austin present a new notion that certain utterances in the appropriate circumstances,are neither descriptive nor evaluative,but a kind of action. Language is not only reflection of reality,but also the way we react to reality. The logic of language comes from the logic of action and life. What language gives us is not merely facts,but also wisdom implicited in facts.Chapter three demonstrates their thought on the internal relationship between ordinary language and philosophy. To some extend,philosophical investigation practised by Wittgenstein and Austin is the analysis of language or the investigation of concepts. They both identify philosophy with the critique of language. They hold that ordinary languge embodies the wisdom of human being in the lifetime of many generations and that to do philosophy is to recollect our tacit knowledge in learning language . Philosophical problems are symptoms of conceptual entanglement. What is needed for the resolution of philosophical problems is a rearrangement of what we already know, i.e. of the rules for the use of words, it is by bringing such rules into view and arranging them in a perspicuous order and by revealing the misuse and abuse of concepts in the philosophical tradition that the conceptual entanglements which characterize the problems of philosophy can be resolved. This chapter also offers a general sketch of how they investigate philosophy.In the next two chapters ,we will discuss how they dissolve theories in philosophy. Chapter four is designed to discuss their refutation of the transgression of foundationism into philosophical epistomology. The foundationist in epistomology seeks to find out the incorrigibly right foundation and bases our knowledge on sense-datum. Wittgenstein and Austin contend that our experience and understanding is formed on the level of language, for what is linguistic is irreducive experience.Chapter five is concerned with a detailed analysis of their ethical thought. The exemplary theories of ethics reduce our ethical thought to some psychological emotions or transcendental principles. As a result, ethics becomes some kind of general and impersonal theories,this tendence strongly risks the wholeness and subjectivity of personal life. However,all knowledge in moral field are various understanding and insight which cannot be fully formalised in words. Ethical theories are nonsense ,what we should do is to dig out our moral senses and discuss all kinds of behaviours. Morals are integrated with our understanding about life, and moral decisions must be done by each of us independently.Chapter six is a summary of the thought of philosophy as therapy. Philosophy is a set of therapies for disease of intellect. The therapist must find precisely the right articulation of philosophical confusions,for only when the 'patient' acknowledges it, it is correct. The philosophical therapist must help each person to work upon himself.