Wittgenstein on Music

This Element shows the philosophical significance of music and music-making in Wittgenstein's thinking about language, mind, and human life.

Eran Guter (Author)

9781009313759, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 April 2024

86 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.5 cm, 0.129 kg

In this Element, the author set out to answer a twofold question concerning the importance of music to Wittgenstein's philosophical progression and the otherness of this sort of philosophical importance vis-à-vis philosophy of music as practiced today in the analytic tradition. The author starts with the idea of making music together and with Wittgenstein's master simile of language-as-music. The author traces these themes as they play out in Wittgenstein early, middle, and later periods. The author argues that Wittgenstein's overarching reorientation of the concept of depth pertaining to music in the aftermath of his anthropological turn, and against the backdrop of the outlook of German Romanticism, culminates in his unique view of musical profundity as 'knowledge of people.' This sets Wittgenstein's view in sharp contrast with certain convictions and debates that typify current analytically inclined philosophy of music.

1. Language as music
2. The early period: eliding musicality
3. The middle period: reorienting depth
4. The late period: knowing human beings
5. The paradigm shift
References.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]