Incapacity : Wittgenstein, anxiety, and performance behavior

305 Pages·2014·2.138 MB·English

by  Spencer Golub

Incapacity

Incapacity
Wittgenstein, Anxiety, and Performance Behavior

Spencer Golub
northwestern university press
evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2014 by Spencer Golub. Published 2014 by Northwestern University
Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golub, Spencer, author.
Incapacity : Wittgenstein, anxiety, and performance behavior / Spencer Golub.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8101-2992-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889–1951. 2. Language and languages—Philosophy.
3. Performance—Philosophy. 4. Literature, Modern—20th century—History
and criticism. 5. Literature—Philosophy. I. Title.
B3376.W564G655 2014
121.68—dc23
2014011601
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For my mother

We go towards the thing we mean.
—Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, §455
. . . only when one knows the story, does one know what the
picture is for.
—Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, §663

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations of Works by Wittgenstein xiii
Introduction
Thoughts Thinking Themselves 3
Chapter 1
Tractatus Illogico-Philosophicus 15
Chapter 2
Wittgenstein’s Anatomy 35
Chapter 3
Catastrophists 59
Chapter 4
Doors of Misperception 89
Chapter 5
Rules of the Game 117
Chapter 6
Non-Sleeper Agents 147
Chapter 7
Masterminds 179
Chapter 8
The Idiot’s Anxiety at the Object’s Disappearance 207
Chapter 9
Homeless 233
Notes 249
Index 285