Hey (former) readers,

You might have noticed that my Typepad blog is no longer in existence.  This was simply a financial decision: I decided that the Typepad service did not per se justify the monthly expenditure (times are tight, and I’m a graduate student).  Thus I’m moving back to this blog and will shortly post those items that I posted previously on the Typepad blog while I used it exclusively.

Anyway, just thought I’d let everyone know.  I’ll try to send out an email to those folks who regularly read my blog too, to indicate to them what’s happening.

Well, I took my own advice and have changed blog providers.  I’m now a user of typepad.  The biggest problem of course is that I’ll have next to nothing for inbound links.

That said, if you an owner of another blog and you link to this blog, please update your links and take note of the following NEW address:

http://theory.typepad.com/language_games/

If you want to view other/additional philosophy-related papers, and some non-philosophy stuff, feel free to visit my Associated Content “content producer” page.

I just wanted to let you all know that I may be switching to a typepad account.  I love wordpress, but typepad would give me more freedom to do what I want with this blog.  I’m still considering it and it’s certainly not a final decision.

I also apologize for my recent lack of posting.  This is simply a result of the thanksgiving break, but I’m back in the saddle now and have quite a few more discussions to undergo.   Just look out for a new URL.

I’ve just started a new blog about virtual economies.  If you’re interested in the new sorts of ethical questions surrounding the exploitation of virtual items for “real world profit”–or if you’re like me and hold that distinction to be problematic in itself–then check it out.

Its over at blogger.com so if you leave a comment over there I may not know who you are–so just let me know somehow in the comment itself.  You can visit it by clicking here or visit the link to it on the right sidebar.  Thanks!

Disclaimer: it’ll have some stuff that’s very particular to one virtual economy sometimes, while other times it will discuss larger questions; questions which can be projected to ‘virtual economies in general’

Well, today I noticed that a paper I wrote for a race relations class was published in my school’s undergraduate journal, VERGE.  If you’re interested in it, you can find it here http://www.goucher.edu/x20848.xml

Unfortunately there was a mistake such that the name that appears on the PDF document isn’t mine.  Doh. Two philosophical positions come to mind to remedy the situation:

1. epistemic fallibility
2. later-Wittgenstein on the meaning of a name

If I couldn’t take comfort with the entertainment of those two perspectives, I don’t know what I would do! 

Simon, over at Wittgensteinforum.wordpress.com, just posted a link to a hilarious application of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Here’s my response to it, available here (as in ‘below’) and here:

LOL

Wow, I had to share this with my gf, who knows nothing of philosophy (she’s a chemist) but nonetheless found it rather hilarious.

Its both sad and delightful that Wittgenstein’s method can be emulated in such “trivial” –but not disinteresting–ways.

I think the “I want to say, ARRRGGGGGHH” example sheds a lot of light on what the reader feels when reading Wittgenstein. Of course, the internalization of “ARRRRGGGGHHH” can be as exciting and motivating as it is an ‘expression of frustration’.

By the way, I want to amend my statement regarding my gf’s knowledge of philosophy.  Contrary to what I said originally, she DOES know something about philosophy, at least to the extent that I am constantly talking about her use of a word at one moment as compared to another shows how we ought not to think of ‘meaning’ as a function of the commonality of word-meanings but rather as the way those words can be used in various game-like contexts.

In any event, as my comment no doubt suggests, I probably reflected too much on the “philosophical” significance of the Philosophical Tribulations. 

Apparently Rush Rhees, translator  and literary executor of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, was from my hometown of Rochester, NY.  I can’t imagine anyone from Rochester being Wittgenstein’s friend and student, let alone one of the critical factors in determining the publication of Wittgenstein’s originally unpublished work.

Small world after all

Simon van Rysewyk, author of the Wittgenstein Forum–a great blog, by the way—has a most helpful link to a Wittgenstein database called The Cambridge Wittgenstein Archive.

This database is for anyone ranging from the interested amateur to the most hardcore of fans/stalkers.   Its most noteworthy feature for me was the ability to search for Wittgenstein’s more personal works, such as his personal letters, entire notebooks, and notes Wittgenstein had taken (he was quite a note taker, from what I understand)

I’m not very familiar with online resources for Wittgenstein-related primary sources, but from what I can tell this is one of the most comprehensive available online.  Certainly it is more user-friendly than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Wittgenstein, for my money.

Ok, I published the FAQ page. Regardless of how unlike it is from a normal FAQ page, at least I can say that my blog on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy HAS a FAQ page.

That’s right: my blog is the first blog to both be about Wittgenstein and have an FAQ page.  Apparently I didn’t get the memo that philosophers never write FAQ pages, since they’re too busy thinking and all.

Seeing as how philosophy is just so darn technical and formal these days, I think it’s reasonable if not essential for this sort of blog to contain a tutorial of sorts.

The dictionary is great, isn’t it:

Main Entry: ²tutorial
Function: noun
1 : a class conducted by a tutor for one student or a small number of students
2 : a paper, book, film, or computer program that provides practical information about a specific subject

I wonder if Merriam-Webster will be upset that my use of the term “tutorial” may not be consistent with their definition!  See, I don’t think that philosophers can have a tutorial: philosophy doesn’t form a specific subject.  I suppose that means that we can’t “provide practical information”

Anyway, what I will try to do is this:

If I happen to use a word or concept in a very specific way, in a way that only academic philosophers (or those with experience in academic philosophy) would be familiar with (e.g. possible-world semantics) I will link that word to whatever explanation or description I have access to that might lend some sense for non-academic philosopher.

The link will take the reader to another post  in the  tutorial category of this site, and it will contain brief explanations and/or helpful links.  Everything not written by  yours truly (the more the merrier) will be noted.  This might be a good opportunity for legitimate link-building.

By the way, please don’t think that when I say “non-academic philosopher” I mean it in some derogatory way.  If I’m truly a fan of Wittgenstein, and I am, I would know that Wittgenstein was famous for beginning classes with something like the following:

“if you are serious about philosophy and intend to teach it, then leave my class”

Anyway, the philosophical tutorial will characterize various and remote notions, from cyborg feminism to modal logic.  Anyone with any experience about a manifestly remote topic should contact me about contributing to this section of the site.  I’m getting more visitors these days, and some of them are bound to be cyborgs, if not social naturalists! See–this is why the philosophical tutorials section will come in handy.

So yeah, this will take a few weeks to implement, but be on the lookout.