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Insights intoWittgenstein &Curriculum
May 6
2010In this paper I attempt to show Wittgensteins connectionbetween language and meaning via his masterpiece:Philosophical Investigations. As previously demonstratedby Wittgenstein, until his theory made print, the past hadstrictly followed the Aristotelian scheme of learningthrough westernized logic. Even though Wittgenstein had
previously made note that what cannot be shown we mustpass over in silence, he eventually reconsidered his originaltheory. What resulted was the culmination of over twenty
years of radical evolutionary thought that led to hisseminal work: Philosophical Investigations.
Searchingfor ClarityandMeaningthroughLanguage
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It appears to some educational philosophers that Wittgensteins last
philosophical publication Philosophical Investigations, reconceived a
curriculum that until then had appeared rather narrow in scope and which
offered a more limited means of attaining knowledge and meaning.
If there was any contribution to the field of curriculum, Wittgensteins
concept of language-games was his contribution. Wittgenstein's earlier work
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was concerned primarily with logical form and
his insistence that what cannot be said clearly or shown we must pass over
in silence. Eventually, Wittgenstein decided that it needed to be revised and
hence his final work: Philosophical Investigations.
According to Wittgensteins work in Philosophical Investigations, curriculum
should be re-conceived as an act of language-play. In Philosophical
Investigations Wittgenstein attempts to describe how language and the
world relate. By doing this he is indirectly raising questions about the
assumptions weve made about curriculum.
Wittgenstein asserts that curriculum scholars should reconsider the process
of how we learn by rejecting the representational view that language acts as
scaffolding connecting the external environment with the human mind.
Instead Wittgenstein suggests that learning is related to our everyday use of
language and that we learn indirectly through activities in which we engage
language with every day life.
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Other scholars believe that those who take the challenge of teaching
seriously must pay closer attention to the pedagogical language employed in
the classroom. As part of the curriculum educators dont always want to
recognize the conceptual relationship between the language used by
teachers as well as the language used by students.
For example, Wittgenstein saw classroom activity as a way in which the
meaning of words evolve from the way students and teachers use language
in the classroom. What I found most interesting was Wittgensteins
intellectual pedagogy that lent itself to a new radical approach in human
thinking and understanding. Peters and Marshall (1999) found Wittgensteins
later philosophy to be pedagogical in nature (175). According to
Wittgenstein, most of the philosophical problems until his time were
somehow imbued with language confusion and linguistic entanglement.
Shortly after completing the Tractatus Wittgenstein realized that his picture
theory of meaning was ill conceived and didnt really correspond with the full
breath and scope of language possibilities and meaning. A hint of his new
understanding and revealed so in Philosophical Investigations was that we
should note in what context words are taught and under what rule making
scenarios.
Wittgensteins primary concern was how meaning is ascribed to words and in
particular what setting it occurs under. His contribution to linguistic
philosophy helped construct a better understanding of language and
meaning that really didnt rely on a strict logical approach. In a primitive
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setting such as a child learning his native language, rudimentary object/word
connections denote a form of learning we traditionally called perceived
knowledge. Whats important about language games is that they represent
for Wittgenstein a different view concerning knowledge and language and
their implications for learning and teaching.
What is so extraordinary and what I found particularly intriguing was his
pedagogical style: using pictures, analogies, drawings, similes, jokes, and
dialogues with himself.
Its as though he wants us to escape from our previous imprint of
understanding and to relinquish the picture theory and its hold on us.
Many modern day philosophers have used Wittgensteins technique of
language-games to help clarify muddled or confusing terms used in
association with movements within the field of education itself.
In particular, analytical educational philosophers have been at the forefront
in bringing clarity to key concepts in education. This field has proven to be
most effective in helping to untangle linguistic conundrums and confusion
associated with complex and abstractual concepts. In this regard,
Wittgensteins insights into the nature of learning and meaning have shown
to be quite useful.
Many theorist have used Wittgensteins techniques to help improve the
educational landscape of language. Jardine (1992) used Wittgensteins
theory of language-games and family resemblances within a particular
framework to reconceptualize the relationship between human beings,
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knowledge and understanding. MacMillan (1998) illustrated an important
use of the concept; language-games helped educators to better understand
why students sometimes fail to learn. Other noted authors such as
Fleener,Carter and Reader (2001) in a very similar fashion to MacMillan have
used Wittgensteins notion of language-games to better understand the
levels of language play between fourth grade teachers and their students.
I think that the key to understanding Wittgensteins philosophy of language-
games stems from the fact that he was once an elementary school teacher.
According to Bartley (1974) Wittgensteins experience as an elementary
school teacher led him to abandon the notion that a direct formal
relationship between language and the world can be found.
Instead Wittgenstein came to believe that meaning and our understanding of
meaning was derived from the various discourses of language-games
employed in the classroom. According to Bartley (1974), his understanding
emerged from the experience of human engagement and the fact that
meaning and understanding is a function of the multitude of practices that
teachers and students engage in.
In Investigations, Wittgenstein makes a radical conceptual leap from the
traditional and conventional outlook on learning and its relationship to
language to a far more different understanding of this exact same process.
One of the key tenants of Investigations suggest that teaching should be
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viewed as an indirect activity in which students are helped to understand the
multi-various language-games that are part of their every day lives.
In Investigations Wittgenstein points out that students should learn in a
synoptic manner in which students learn about various resemblances that
exist among concepts. Why is this point so important? In my opinion it is
due to the fact that a teacher is often confronted with a multitude of
backgrounds and nationalities in the classroom.
As a result, many teachers without realizing it develop and teach in an
indirect manner a unique form of language-games that is inherently built
into the linguistic code of the classroom. Teachers that truly inspire and
make a profound connection with their students play the language-game
very well.
So often I have found myself creating a situation of understanding and
meaning when I allow the students to learn in a synoptic manner and not in
the more conventional manner of logical sequence and causality.
In such instances I often find myself creating an atmosphere of engagement
and learning when I effectively show the varied resemblance of concepts to
my students. When one looks deeply into Wittgensteins methodology and
pedagogy one sees how he was trying to elucidate that by teaching in an
indirect manner, one sees that there is no one preferred way of learning.
The traditional westernized way of learning in a logical and sequential
manner is often a constraint placed on many teachers and students.
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Whether Wittgenstein is correct or not can be debated. However, in my own
experience with urban youth of different backgrounds and cultural diversity I
find that language-games revolving around conceptual resemblances and
contextual utterances offer greater degrees of learning and success.
A case in point, one of my students walks into class sporting a new tattoo
along with a facial piercing. Constructing a dialogue with him concerning the
tattoo in question and facilitating at the same time with an example on the
board provides instant meaning and context as opposed to following a
ritualistic pedagogical lesson plan with no intrinsic value to the student.
Whether its the music in the classroom, or the conversation were having on
his tattoo, instructional learning can occur and does occur when his world
and my world merge and create a language-game that abides by the rules of
the linguistic code of the school, his culture, my outlook, his outlook, and the
rules of discourse in my classroom.
Wittgenstein (1979) had a very good point when he said you cannot lead
people to what is good; you can only lead them to some place or other. The
good is outside the space of facts.
What strikes me as relevant to this quote is that there is no one right way to
teach one method. We cannot make explicit conclusions and believe that
the student will always discover the proverbial good. Instead Wittgenstein
insinuates that we should not restrict the student to one possibility, but
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instead lead them to a variety of possibilities that can emerge from the
activity of the language-game.
What his forms of life and language-games helped to create can only be
expressed as a complete shake down of our theoretical understanding
between the realm of language and the realm of meaning. I believe that his
insights bring greater clarity to the issues of previous theoretical discourse,
chiefly language and understanding.
As Wittgenstein cleverly illustrated through his pedagogy; a more precise
understanding of language-games and an a more precise understanding of
the difference between his philosophy and previous philosophical thought is
the case of logical discourse.
Logic like other concrete discourses is firmly rooted in our minds as giving
total meaning to our world. He makes a point of noting that logic has shown
to be ideal and unshakeable in that the strict and clear rules of logical
structuremust be found in reality. Wittgenstein (1953).
I think that what Wittgenstein is pursuing here might be similar to Kants
metaphysical rose tinted spectacles. I think that in a sense their concept
of spectacles is different in that Kant relates his metaphor to metaphysical
origins and Wittgenstein is referring more to epistemological origins.
Epistemological in the sense that logic has a way of making us see the world
through a pair of spectacles that roots our beliefs in its methodical way of
knowing.
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Wittgenstein states that these spectacles offer a more methodized way of
viewing the world. I tend to see a more complex and comprehensive
relationship between language and being than just imagining that building
knowledge sequentially and linearly offers the only way.
As such Wittgensteins later philosophy turns out to be more of a proposal to
understand teaching as an indirect activity rather than directed activity.
Janik and Toulmin (1973) point out that he felt that it does no good for the
teacher to draw conclusions for his pupils. The only thing important here
was that the teacher lead students to a variety of possibilities that could
emerge from their learning activities.
Referencing back to an earlier passage in which I described Wittgensteins
use of the analogous spectacles I would like to point out that his radical
construction of how we learn (indirectly) is specifically tied to his
commentary on the pair of glasses. According to Wittgenstein the purpose
of the spectacles is to remove any sense of vaugness that has led us to
believe that there is such a thing as a perfect construction of language.
By using these logical spectacles we are by default to always believe that
there is only one correct way of learning. Wittgensteins philosophy can be
extremely difficult to follow. I cant say that I can completely agree with him
on every point of his philosophical masterpiece. But, I must admit that the
only reason is because I havent taken the time to digest it and reflect on the
essential points he makes.
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It is quite an archaic thicket of logical possibilities that leaves the reader
bewildered as to how he intends to get to the end result. Wittgensteins
work reminds me of Spinozas in the sense that if one can decipher some of
their archaic language code one can reap the possibilities of enlightenment.
However, his way of thinking was so radical that it reminds me of another
favorite radical thinker; Albert Einstein. Just questioning the methodology of
how we teach and learn is one thing. However, to make a convincing
argument philosophically is quite another.
Language-games is such a comprehensive and radical approach to
classroom learning that to not consider it would be an educational mistake.
His refutation of the logical spectacles was an eye opening experience that
begged to ask: Must we always teach in the same sequential manner as we
have over the preceding 2500 years? There is no doubt that he made an
about-face with respect to his original masterpiece: The Tractatus. There is
no way to know what made Wittgenstein reconsider and then reconceive his
lifelong philosophy.
Yes, he was in search of complete clarity per se, but not through the
introduction of a rigid and sterilized thicket of logic. I believe Wittgenstein
wanted us to unlearn the standard method of learning, from an old way of
thinking to a new and more insightful way. I think that what Wittgenstein
wanted more than anything was for us to use our imaginations when it came
to language.
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Teaching for Wittgenstein meant that the teacher was a participant but not
totally responsible for ascribing meaning to a word. The connection or
meaning was established in the given form of life. Culture, style, utterances,
environment, conversation, sight, smell, demonstration of relational concepts
are all part of the indirect method and all are intertwined in Wittgensteins
world of language games.
References
Bartley, W. (1974). Wittgenstein (pp. 98, 126-129). London: Quarter Books.
MacMillan, C. J. B. (1995). How Not to Learn: Reflections on Wittgenstein and
Learning in Philosophy of Education: Accepting Wittgensteins
Challenge, ed. Paul Smeyers and James Marshall Boston:Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
Marshall, J. and Peters, M. (1999). Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Postmodernism,
Pedagogy(pp.175).Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey
Jardine, D. (1992). Speaking with a Boneless Tongue Bragg Creek, Alberta:
Makyo Press.
Fleener,M. Carter, A. and Reed, S. Language-Games in the Mathematics
Classroom: Learning a Way of Life inJournal of Curriculum Theorizing.
Janik, A. and Toulmin, S. (1973). Wittgensteins Vienna (pp. 228). New York,
New York: Simon and Schuster.
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Waismann, L. (1979). Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle (pp. 117).
Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell Publisher.
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations (pp. 39). Oxford,
England: Blackwell Publishing LTD.