Worlds or words apart? Wittgenstein on understanding religious language
Worlds or words apart? Wittgenstein on understanding religious language
In this paper I develop an account of Wittgenstein's conception of what it is to understand religious language. I show that Wittgenstein's view undermines the idea that as regards religious faith only two options are possible – either adherence to a set of metaphysical beliefs (with certain ways of acting following from these beliefs) or passionate commitment to a ‘doctrineless’ form of life. I offer a defence of Wittgenstein's conception against Kai Nielsen's charges that Wittgenstein removes the ‘content’ from religious belief and renders the religious form of life ‘incommensurable’ with other domains of discourse, thus immunizing it against rational criticism
422-441
Schönbaumsfeld, Genia
586652b5-20da-47cf-9719-4fc587dfa4e8
December 2007
Schönbaumsfeld, Genia
586652b5-20da-47cf-9719-4fc587dfa4e8
Abstract
In this paper I develop an account of Wittgenstein's conception of what it is to understand religious language. I show that Wittgenstein's view undermines the idea that as regards religious faith only two options are possible – either adherence to a set of metaphysical beliefs (with certain ways of acting following from these beliefs) or passionate commitment to a ‘doctrineless’ form of life. I offer a defence of Wittgenstein's conception against Kai Nielsen's charges that Wittgenstein removes the ‘content’ from religious belief and renders the religious form of life ‘incommensurable’ with other domains of discourse, thus immunizing it against rational criticism
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Published date: December 2007
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Local EPrints ID: 48401
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/48401
ISSN: 0034-0006
PURE UUID: a098bb59-d7a3-4209-abe8-c2f140751eb8
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Date deposited: 20 Sep 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:45
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