Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:28:51.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wittgenstein on the language of rituals: the scapegoat remark reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2011

CHRISTOPHER HOYT
CHRISTOPHER HOYT
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Religion, Western Carolina University, 226 Stillwell Hall, Cullowhee, NC 28723 e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Wittgenstein's remarks on religion suggest a provocative and nuanced account of what makes rituals meaningful – and why some living rituals might have little or no meaning despite their hold on congregants. Wittgenstein's view has been obscured, I argue, in part by the consistent misinterpretation of his controversial ‘scapegoat remark’, which has been taken to be a comment on the internal incoherence of the ancient Jewish scapegoat rite. In fact, Wittgenstein's point is that the scapegoat ritual is particularly easy to misinterpret, and so reflection on it helps illustrate the sort of confusion that plagues much thinking about religion and ritual.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 165 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ayer, A. J. (1980) Wittgenstein (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).Google Scholar
Bouwsma, O. K. (1986) Wittgenstein: Conversations 1949–1951 (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Cioffi, Frank (1998) Wittgenstein on Freud and Frazer (New York: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clack, Brian (1996) ‘Wittgenstein and expressive theories of religion’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 40, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clack, Brian (1999) Wittgenstein, Frazer, and Religion (New York: St. Martins).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clack, Brian (2001) ‘Wittgenstein and magic’, in Arrington, R. and Addis, M. (eds) Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (New York: Routledge), 12–28.Google Scholar
Clack, Brian (2004) ‘Scapegoat rituals in Wittgensteinian perspective’, in Schilbrack, K. (ed.) Thinking through Rituals (New York: Routledge), 97–112.Google Scholar
Cook, John (1983) ‘Magic, witchcraft and science’, Philosophical Investigations, 6, 2–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crockett, William R. (1989) Eucharist, Symbol of Transformation (New York: Pueblo Pub. Co.).Google Scholar
Drury, M. O'C. (1981) ‘Conversations with Wittgenstein’, in Rhees, R. (ed.) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).Google Scholar
Frazer, James G. (1936) The Golden Bough, 3rd edn, 13 vols. (London: Macmillan).Google Scholar
Frazer, James G. (1981) The Golden Bough, Condensed (New York: Gramercy).Google Scholar
Johnson, Alan F. and Webber, Robert E. (1993) What Christians Believe: A Biblical and Historical Summary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan).Google Scholar
Künne, Wolfgang (1996) ‘Wittgenstein and Paul Ernst’, in Wittgenstein Studien [online] Available at <http://sammelpunkt.philo.at:8080/482/1/18-1-96.TXT> [Accessed 1 February 2010].+[Accessed+1+February+2010].>Google Scholar
Lerner, Berel Dov (1994) ‘Wittgenstein's scapegoat’, Philosophical Investigations, 17, 604–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuiness, Brian (1982) ‘Freud and Wittgenstein’, in Kenny, Anthony and McGuiness, Brian (eds.) Wittgenstein and his Times (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 27–43.Google Scholar
Mounce, H. (1973) ‘Understanding a primitive society’, Philosophy, 48, 347–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulhall, Stephen (2001) ‘Seeing aspects’, in Glock, Hans-Johann (ed.) Wittgenstein: A Critical Reader (Malden, MA: Blackwell), 246–267.Google Scholar
Nielson, Kai (1967) ‘Wittgensteinian fideism’, Philosophy, 62, 191–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Hear, A. (1984) Experience, Explanation and Faith (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).Google Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. (1986) Belief, Change, and Forms of Life (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. (1993) Wittgenstein and Religion (London: Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. (2003) ‘Wittgenstein, Wittgensteinianism, and magic: a philosophical tragedy?’, Religious Studies, 39, 185–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph (1989) Principles of Catholic Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius Press).Google Scholar
Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph (2003) God is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (San Francisco: Ignatius Press).Google Scholar
Reader, Ian (1995) ‘Cleaning floors and sweeping the mind: cleaning as ritual process’, in Martinez, D. P. and Van Bremen, Jan (eds) Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized Society (New York: Routledge), 227–245.Google Scholar
Rhees, Rush (1997) ‘Wittgenstein on language and ritual’, in , D. Z., Phillips (ed.) Rush Rhees on Religion and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 65–96.Google Scholar
Richter, Duncan (2001) ‘Missing the entire point: Wittgenstein and religion’, Religious Studies, 37, 161–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Miranda Eberle (1994) Passionate Enlightenment : Women in Tantric Buddhism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulevitz, Judith (2010) The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time (New York: Random House).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1969) On Certainty (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1974) Philosophical Grammar (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1980a) Culture and Value (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1980b) Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. 1 (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1993) Philosophical Occasions, Nordman, A. and Klagge, J., eds (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1998) The Blue and the Brown Books (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (2000) Wittgenstein's Nachlass: The Bergen Electronic Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (2001) Philosophical Investigations (Malden, MA: Blackwell).Google Scholar