How to Read Wittgenstein by Ray Monk (Live Reading)

2022 March 6 updates

1. New format temporarily until host returns
2. Converted to live reading format for review time frame (6-7 weeks)
3. Now hosting on Zoom, please RSVP for the new meeting link
4. Our host Phil will be off, returning in 6-7 weeks. Until he returns, we will do a review and start at Chapter 1 until he is back, then we will pick up where we left off

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"The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed, a poem..."

This will be a live reading event in which we work our way through a secondary source book about Wittgenstein. Like all books in the "How To Read" series, this book presents large passages from Wittgenstein himself followed by commentary. I believe that one good way to reach genuine understanding of a philosopher is to read a high quality interpreter who one can both agree with and argue against as one reads. So no one in the group will be in any way obliged to AGREE with the interpretations of Wittgenstein that Ray Monk puts forward. I myself often do not agree with him, but I always learn a lot by trying to articulate HOW I disagree with him.

I like reading highly quality secondary sources because I just do not believe it is possible to have what we might call "an unmediated direct encounter with a philosopher's writings". As I see it, all encounters with philosophy are mediated and the only question is: Will our encounter be mediated by something of high quality, or not? I prefer to have my encounters with philosophers be mediated by high quality interpreters like Ray Monk.

Here is a description of the book:

Though Wittgenstein wrote on the same subjects that dominate the work of other analytic philosophers the nature of logic, the limits of language, the analysis of meaning he did so in a peculiarly poetic style that separates his work sharply from that of his peers and makes the question of how to read him particularly pertinent.
At the root of Wittgenstein’s thought, Ray Monk argues, is a determination to resist the scientism characteristic of our age, a determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of non-scientific forms of understanding. The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed, a poem.

The book is available here - https://www.amazon.ca/How-Read-Wittgenstein-R-Monk/dp/186207724X
PDF - https://ca1lib.org/book/5220505/53d287

I intend for this meetup to be a fairly relaxed and "easy" meetup (to the extent that any attempt to understand Wittgenstein an ever be said to be "easy"). You can enjoy it all on its own if you like. However I am also doing a series of more challenging meetups on 21st century philosophers, most of whom assume that their readers know quite a bit about Wittgenstein. So you could also attend this Wittgenstein meetup as preparation for the more challenging meetups I will soon be hosting on such thinkers as Robert Brandom and John McDowell.

One thing to be aware of is that your host and guide to the book
(Philip) has some disabilities that require him to run the group a little bit differently. For example, I will not see you and you will not see me. In many ways this meetup will be run more like a conference call on the phone than like a standard zoom Meetup. I hope very much that I can run this meetup without requiring the "raise hands" feature. But because this meetup will be less visually oriented than many other meetups, we will all have to work together to make sure the conversation flows well without the "raise hands" feature.

Lastly, I strongly encourage everyone to get some books by Wittgenstein himself and read them, but we will not be doing that in this meetup.

Although this is a live reading event, it would be great if you read beforehand. This is completely optional however.

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This event will repeat indefinitely (every 2 weeks) until we complete the book.