This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by van der Merwe, W. L. Articles by Voestermans, P. P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Wittgenstein's Legacy and the Challenge to Psychology

University Of Stellenbosch, WLVDM{at}MATIES.SUN.AC.ZA

P. P. Voestermans

University Of Nijmegen, U212382{at}VM.UCI.KUN.NL

The present resurgence of interest in Ludwig Wittgenstein is related to the growing concern in the philosophy and methodology of the behavioural sciences with the role played by conceptual frameworks, models and metaphors in the mediation of our experience of the world. It is also related to Wittgenstein's notion of `forms of life' as a new focus of empirical research. In the first part of this article we distinguish between and explain Wittgenstein's initial understanding of language as the symbolic representation of sensory experience and his eventual under-standing of the dialectic of language-games and forms of life. In the second part, the cue of his linking of language to experiential forms of life, even to what can be called the `body-subject' in Merleau-Ponty's terminology, will be taken up and further improvised in order to show the challenge with which Wittgenstein's legacy confronts present-day psychology. In this science one has to come to grips with meaning-giving (and taking, for that matter) as an experiential affair. This task requires an analysis of people's culturally informed body, their bodily structured sentiments and the use of language confined to these bodily and affective structures, and of the way these structures are framed by people's forms of life, in order to fully understand what presses people to experience the world in this and not the other way.

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 5, No. 1, 27-48 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354395051002


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Mollaret Using Common Psychological Terms to Describe Other People: From Lexical Hypothesis to Polysemous Conception Theory Psychology, June 1, 2009; 19(3): 315 - 334. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. Verheggen and C. Baerveldt We Don't Share! The Social Representation Approach, Enactivism and the Ground for an Intrinsically Social Psychology Culture Psychology, March 1, 2007; 13(1): 5 - 27. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Holzman Activating Postmodernism Theory Psychology, February 1, 2006; 16(1): 109 - 123. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Quigley Psychology and Grammar: The Construction of the Autobiographical Self Theory Psychology, April 1, 2001; 11(2): 147 - 170. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. J. Stam Ten Years after, Decade to Come: The Contributions of Theory to Psychology Theory Psychology, February 1, 2000; 10(1): 5 - 21. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Baerveldt and T. Verheggen Enactivism and the Experiential Reality of Culture: Rethinking the Epistemological Basis of Cultural Psychology Culture Psychology, June 1, 1999; 5(2): 183 - 206. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Ratner Activity as a Key Concept for Cultural Psychology Culture Psychology, December 1, 1996; 2(4): 407 - 434. [Abstract]

				E. E. Sampson Establishing Embodiment in Psychology Theory Psychology, November 1, 1996; 6(4): 601 - 624. [Abstract]

				C. Baerveldt and P. Voestermans The Body as a Selfing Device: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa Theory Psychology, November 1, 1996; 6(4): 693 - 713. [Abstract]

				S. D. Brown The Textuality of Stress: Drawing between Scientific and Everyday Accounting J Health Psychol, April 1, 1996; 1(2): 173 - 193. [Abstract]