Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
A paradoxical situation exists in the study of Wittgenstein. There is a sharp disagreement in the interpretation of his thinking about the concept of following a rule. According to one group of philosophers Wittgenstein's position is that this concept presupposes a human community in which there is agreement as to whether doing such-and-such is or is not following a particular rule. A second group of philosophers hold that this interpretation of Wittgenstein is not merely wrong, but is even a caricature of Wittgenstein's thought: for when Wittgenstein says that following a rule is ‘a practice’ he does not mean a social practice, he does not invoke a community of rule-followers, but instead he emphasizes that following a rule presupposes a regularity, a repeated or recurring way of acting, which might be exemplified in the life of a solitary person. On the first interpretation it would have no sense to suppose that a human being who had grown up in complete isolation from the rest of mankind could be following rules. On the second interpretation such isolation would be irrelevant.
1 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Philosophical Investigations, 3rd edn, trans. Anscombe, G. E. M. (New York: Macmillan, 1971)Google Scholar. Cited as PI with paragraph number or page number.
2 Malcolm, Norman, Nothing Is Hidden (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986).Google Scholar
3 Malcolm, , 175.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., 178.
5 Hacker, P. M. S., ‘Critical Notice’, Philosophical Investigations, 10, No. 2 (04 1987).Google Scholar
6 Malcolm, , op. cit., 156.Google Scholar
7 Ibid..
8 Hacker, , op. cit., 149.Google Scholar
9 Baker, G. P. and Hacker, P. M. S., Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986)Google Scholar. Cited B&H.
10 B&H, 171–172.Google Scholar
11 B&H, 172.Google Scholar
12 Wittgenstein, , Bermerkungen über die Grundlagen der Mathematik, revised and expanded edition, Anscombe, G. E. M., Rhees, Rush, and von Wright, G. H. (eds) (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974), 393Google Scholar. (Cited RFM with page number. Quotations are my translation.)
13 PI 219.Google Scholar
14 PI 188.Google Scholar
15 Wittgenstein, , MS 165, c. 1941–1944Google Scholar; unfortunately not published, 78. (Quotations will be by page number and are my translation.)
16 MS 165, 91.
17 Ibid., 93–94.
18 RFM, 323.Google Scholar
19 MS 165, 75–76.
20 Ibid., 86–87.
21 RFM, 342.Google Scholar
22 R&H, 171–172.Google Scholar
23 Ibid., 243.
24 MS 165, 78.
25 Ibid., my emphasis.
26 PI, 129.Google Scholar
27 R&H, 243.Google Scholar
28 Ibid.
29 RFM, 196.Google Scholar
30 RFM, 323.Google Scholar
31 RFM, 342.Google Scholar
32 RFM, 344.Google Scholar
33 MS 165, 79.
34 MS 165, 94.
35 B&H, 243.Google Scholar
36 Ibid.
37 Wittgenstein, , Zettel, Anscombe, G. E. M. and von Wright, G. H. (eds), Trans, by Anscombe, G. E. M. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1967), para. 430. Cited as Z followed by paragraph number.Google Scholar
38 Z, 429.Google Scholar
39 Z, 431.Google Scholar
40 PI, 241.Google Scholar
41 See PI, 226.Google Scholar
42 Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics. Lecture notes taken by four people, Diamond, Cora (ed.) (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976), 101. Cited as LFM.Google Scholar
43 Ibid., 183–184.
44 B&H, 243.Google Scholar
45 B&H, 248.Google Scholar
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid., 249.
48 Ibid., 140.
49 Ibid., 164.
50 Baker, G. P. and Hacker, P. M. S., Scepticism, Rules & Language, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), 20Google Scholar. Cited SRL.
51 SRL, 76.Google Scholar
52 B&H, 170.Google Scholar
53 B&H, 172.Google Scholar
54 B&H, 175–176.Google Scholar
55 SRL, 41.Google Scholar
56 Mounce, H. O., ‘Following a Rule’, Philosophical Investigations, 9, No. 3 (07 1986), 198.Google Scholar
57 RFM, 29.Google Scholar
58 RFM, 345.Google Scholar
59 B&H, 177.Google Scholar
60 Ibid.
61 B&H, 140.Google Scholar
62 Ibid.
63 RFM, 335.Google Scholar
64 RFM, 334.Google Scholar
65 RFM, 344–345.Google Scholar
66 RFM, 353.Google Scholar
67 RFM, 349.Google Scholar
68 B&H, 140.Google Scholar
69 RFM, 342.Google Scholar
70 RFM, 353.Google Scholar
71 Z, 430.Google Scholar
72 RFM, 344.Google Scholar
73 B&H, 164.Google Scholar
74 PI, 19.Google Scholar
75 PI, 415.Google Scholar
76 PI, 202.Google Scholar
77 PI, 199.Google Scholar
78 B&H, 177–178.Google Scholar
79 B&H, 172.Google Scholar
80 B&H, 173.Google Scholar
81 MS 165, 103.
82 Ibid., 108.
83 Ibid., 116–117.
84 Ibid., 96.
85 B&H, 175.Google Scholar
86 MS 165, 105.
87 B&H, 175.Google Scholar
88 RFM, 344.Google Scholar
89 RFM, 330.Google Scholar
90 B&H, 179.Google Scholar
91 Ibid., 179–180.
92 Ibid., 179.
93 McGinn, Colin, Wittgenstein On Meaning (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984), 191.Google Scholar
94 Ibid.
95 Ibid., 198.
96 Ibid.
97 Armstrong, Benjamin F. Jr., ‘Wittgenstein on Private Languages’, Philosophical Investigations, 7, No. 1 (01 1984), 54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
98 Ibid., 61.
99 LFM, 183.Google Scholar