Ludwig Wittgenstein

Over half of Wittgenstein’s raw, unedited remarks in On Certainty were written in seven weeks ending two days before his death, and he often expresses dissatisfaction with his progress. Unsurprisingly, they are rife with tensions. The author focuses on two topics centering on his crucial notion of “the propositions that are beyond doubt”: what it is for a proposition to have that status for someone, and whether Wittgenstein thinks we can defend our beliefs in such propositions. The author argues that his struggles can be seen to be leading him to views much like Quine’s. Three points of agreement stand out: (i) One cannot be faulted either for retaining any particular belief or for taking any particular belief as fundamental if doing so does not violate (iii). (ii) One can be wrong about the truth of any proposition. (iii) One’s world view must be kept squared with experience.