● 20th century philosophers were struggling to further post-Nietzschean deconstruction of

metaphysics
● Philosophical deconstruction is analysis of hitherto concealed privileges
○ Philosophical deconstructors approach philosophy historically

Two Approaches to Philosophy

● Analytic philosophy was created by Ludwig Wittgenstein in England in 1912
○ refers to nonliterary approach to philosophy that stresses logic, testability,
precision, and clarity
● Often contrasted with continental philosophy
● Continental philosophers explain by understanding things in a broader, holistic context

Ludwig Wittgenstein
● Controversial figure born in 1889 and was regarded as a philosophical genius
● Youngest of 8 children from an influential family in Vienna
● Studied Berlin-Charlottenburg and never completed his studies
● Intrigued by the book “Principles of Mathematics”
● Received PhD in 1929

What are you Talking About?

● Philosophers need to be sure they know what they are saying before they can
philosophize with any confidence
● Analytic philosophy is more technical than traditional philosophy
● Reject traditional philosophical ideas regarding metaphysics in favor of realism
● In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein confidently rejects earlier philosophers’ attempts to
grapple directly with problems of existence, knowledge, truth, and value
● Sentences that cannot be reduced to simple symbols—primitive names—are
meaningless
● If philosophers do their jobs properly, they will see that all meaningful propositions fall
into the bailiwick of the natural sciences and, hence, will allow science to deal with them

Wittgenstein’s Turn
● The more Wittgenstein reflected on language uses, the more he believed that the
Tractus has succumbed to the problem it set out to solve
● Rather than one meaningful language, there are many different languages with many diff
erent structures and many different uses

Martin Heiddeger
● Born in 1889 Heidegger is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century
○ Extremely controversial
● Eldest of three children, born in Germany
● Studied to become a priest but gave this dream up in favor of math, science and
philosophy
Being Human
● By treating phenomenology as a method, rather than a subject matter, he could reach
back to the ancient Greeks and revitalize thought
● In our everyday experience we encounter “Being itself”
● We are unique among beings because our nature and the fact that we exist at all is
something we care about, something that matters to us
● Ontology is the study of being

What is the Meaning of Being

● Wanted to remind us of what we and our culture have lost by taking existence so much
for granted
● We forget being to such an extent that we are not even perplexed by it
● Humanity’s tragedy, is struggle to be truly and fully human is to be amazed in the
● presence of being human

The “They”
● Authentic self vs. they self
● The “they” is a diminished, inauthentic way of being in which “one speaks of oneself”
from the outside
● Among the they there is only idle talk or chatter
● We know that our existence will come to an end one day

Humanity is a Conversation
● Believes that we, mankind, are a conversation
○ A conversation is more than simply idle talk
● Rich poetic function of language is what makes human existence possible