“Language, Games & Logic” will use a game-based approach to present select aspects of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a prelude to focusing on later thinking in Philosophical Investigations to reflect upon his evolving views of the ability of logic to capture ordinary language. This exploration of Wittgenstein’s two major phases
will serve as a backdrop for discussing the implications of his thinking today, especially as computing technology runs up against the limits of logic in using large binary data sets to mimic human expression in the manner described in his earlier work and the demand for genuine artificial intelligence to operate with fuzzy, more flexible logic in reading a given symbol as this or as that depending on the context of use anticipated in his later work.

Please note: Readings have been provided for you online and hard copies of the texts will eventually make their way to you as well. Reading assignments are included below in bold text like this.

Week 1: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus & Language as Binary
Truth-Functional

First Monday, Game 1: Putting Picture Theory into Practice – We will divide into small groups to play games that will help us examine the power (and limits) of yes/no, true/false expression. No text whatsoever is encountered before or during this first day of engagement, with the focus instead being on community building and conceptual exploration.

First Tuesday, Seminar 1: The World and Atomic Facts – Please begin by reading
Section 2 from the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy entry on Ludwig Wittgenstein
(https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#EarlWitt). We will review and discuss a preparatory reading (approximately seven pages) covering Propositions 1 & 2 of the Tractatus (up to, but not including Point 3; pp. 5-12). Proposition 3 (up to, but not including Point 4 on p. 22) will be optional. Using the previous day’s activity as background material, we will address the technical vocabulary and approach taken by Wittgenstein to similar issues. Our task will be twofold: 1) to establish baseline understanding of Wittgenstein’s notion of the world being composed of atomic facts and 2) to work through the implications of this view conversationally, emphasizing both what rendering the world in binary can in fact accomplish and what, if anything, those same zeroes and ones might leave out.

First Wednesday, Game 2: A Picture Is Worth How Many Zeroes and Ones?
World – We will play games and hold discussions as a single united group to work through the implications of our first reading for our understanding of logic, its role in the world, and its application in modern computing systems. No new text needs to be read prior to this session, so this may be a good opportunity to brush up on has already been covered.

First Thursday, Seminar 2: Ethics, Metaphysics, and the Limits of Picture Theory – We will then read together in class approximately four short pages covering Proposition 5.6
of the Tractatus and its sub-propositions on the self (pp. 68-70), like the eye, being outside of the field of vision/logical depiction before working collectively to reckon with how the solipsism and skepticism might be at play in the final and still-enigmatic Proposition 7 (p. 89)—“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”
First Friday, Seminar 3: Situating Wittgenstein’s Picture Theory in the History of Philosophy – After addressing any lingering issues from our foregoing examination of
Wittgenstein’s Tracatus-era approach, we will have a general discussion of its role within the historyof philosophy. This may include looking at the Tractatus and its implications for the work of figures like René Descartes, Sextus Empiricus, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant (and perhaps how such figures would regard Wittgenstein’s work in turn). No new reading is necessary prior to today, but it is the capstone to our work with the Tractatus, so it would probably be a good idea to go back over everything again (but reall, when is it not?).

Week 2: Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations & Meaning (and
Language) as Use

Second Monday, Game 1: What Does It Mean To Learn a Language? – We will
divide into small groups to play games that will help us examine how we (and perhaps how different computer applications) use language and discern meaning. No text whatsoever is encountered before or during this day of engagement.

Second Tuesday, Seminar 1: Language Games – Students will prepare by reading
Philosophical Investigations Part I, Sections 1-20 (pages 1-13) in order to develop an
understanding of Wittgenstein’s notion of language games in light of our own in-class language games. We will then consider how this paradigm diverges from the binary, truth-functional approach to language that we see in the Tractatus.

Second Wednesday, Seminar 2: The Limits of Ostensive Learning
through Family Resemblance – Students will prepare by reading Philosophical
Investigations Part I, Sections 21-77 (pages 13-36; a slightly longer reading).
Discussion will focus on drawing out the limits of Wittgenstein’s meaning-is-use
paradigm.

Second Thursday, Game 2: Seeing This as That – Students will break into small groups
to play games that will help us talk about how it is that humans (and perhaps computers) are able to make sense of what we perceive in such a way that we can tell signal from noise, this from that. No reading is necessary prior to this session, but a bit of review couldn’t hurt.

Second Friday, Seminar 3: Reflections – Students will prepare by reading Philosophical
Investigations, the beginning of Part II Section XI (pp. 193-197; shorter reading). We will work through the text and discuss the previous day’s game in light of Wittgenstein’s remarks on the infamous duck-rabbit before considering the work as a wholeand its implications for us as citizens of this emerging data age.