Following Rules: Wittgenstein, Meaning, and the Social Self

This class introduces Ludwig Wittgenstein’s distinction between merely acting in accordance with a rule and genuinely following one, and asks what this tells us about meaning, normativity, and shared practice. We examine the Private Language Argument and the claim that a language referring to purely private sensations is incoherent, which in turn challenges the idea that psychological words are labels attached to inner feelings. From there, we connect these themes to contemporary questions about artificial intelligence: can an AI system genuinely follow a rule, or does it only produce outputs that accord with rules under interpretation? Can it possess concepts like pain, belief, or intention without participation in a human form of life? Finally, we explore the implications for personal identity. If psychological predicates depend upon public criteria, then identity cannot be fixed solely by private feeling or first-person declaration, but is shaped within a network of shared human responsiveness. Through these questions, we explore the deep connections between language, normativity, the constitution of the self, and human forms of life more generally. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required.