Ethics and the philosophy of culture : Wittgensteinian approaches

Product Description Questions of ethics and the study of culture are tightly interwoven. Are we to see ethics as one thread in the fabric created by human culture or does ethics rather transcend culture? The discussions in this volume take place within this spectrum. Eleven Wittgenstein-scholars explore how ethics is embedded in everyday activities and speech. The topics dealt with range from the ways we speak about human practices and nature, religious belief, gender, and moral understanding to questions about Wittgenstein's views on ethics and what it means to understand and attend to a particular individual. Central points of departure are, firstly, that ethics cannot be reduced to any specific cultural form and, secondly, that how we conceive of language is crucially connected with how we perceive the relation between culture and ethics. The points of view put forth frequently pose radical questions to the mainstream of philosophy. The different uses to which Wittgenstein's thought is put also raise important questions about how one should understand the role of language, ethics and culture in his philosophy. Review This is a very worthwhile collection. All of the essays are informed by a strong knowledge of, and sympathy for, Wittgenstein, and develop strands in his thinking in fresh and interesting ways. They also, however, bring a distinctive angle to issues of broad philosophical interest in a way that should make the collection of value to anyone who is concerned with the fundamental questions of ethics, culture and religion that are its focus. One might add that (in contrast to much contemporary philosophy) most of these essays are a real pleasure to read. --David Cockburn, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David About the Author Hannes Nykanen is teaching and doing research at the philosophy departments in Abo Akademi University and Helsinki University. He is the author of The 'I', the'You' and the Soul: An Ethics of Conscience, Oppningar och Labyrinter, Samvetet och det dolda: Om karlek och kollektivitet, Freud's Dangerous Pupils (on Wittgenstein's philosophy), Conscience and Collective Fantasy and Heidegger's Conscience. Ylva Gustafsson is a PhD student at the Department of Philosophy at Abo Akademi University. Her research interests in philosophy are philosophy of psychology, philosophy of anthropology and moral philosophy. Camilla Kronqvist is engaged with teaching and research at the Department of Philosophy at Abo Akademi University. Her doctoral dissertation (2008) dealt with the subject of love in relation to questions regarding emotions, identity and meaning. Her current research interests focus on moral philosophy and the philosophy of emotion.