Wittgenstein on the arbitrariness of grammar

264 Pages·2004·0.685 MB·English

by  Forster, Michael N

(cid:1)Wittgenstein
(cid:1)on the Arbitrariness
of Grammar
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WITTGENSTEIN
(cid:1)
ON THE ARBITRARINESS
(cid:1)
OF GRAMMAR
Michael N. Forster
  
  
Copyright (cid:1)2004 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Forster, Michael N.
Wittgenstein on the arbitrariness of grammar/Michael N. Forster.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-691-11366-1 (cl.: alk. paper)
1. Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889–1951. 2. Grammar,
Comparative and general. I. Title.
B3376.W564F672004
121(cid:2).68—dc22 2003055536
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Dante Typeface
Printed on acid-free paper. (cid:1)
www.pupress.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
(cid:1)
(cid:1)For my daughter, Alya
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE
GRAMMAR, ARBITRARINESS, NON-ARBITRARINESS
1. Wittgenstein’s Conception of Grammar 7
2. The Sense in Which Grammar Is Arbitrary 21
3. The Sense in Which Grammar Is Non-Arbitrary 66
4. Some Modest Criticisms 82
PART TWO
THE DIVERSITY THESIS
5. Alternative Grammars? The Case of Formal Logic 107
6. Alternative Grammars? The Limits of Language 129
7. Alternative Grammars? The Problem of Access 153
Appendix. The Philosophical Investigations 189
Notes 193
Index 241
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Acknowledgments
My interest in Wittgenstein goes back many years, to the late
1970s when I was an undergraduate at Oxford University and
the early 1980s when I was a graduate student at Princeton
University. I have accordingly accumulated many intellectual
debts in this area, only a few of which I can gratefully record
here.
At Oxford I was especially fortunate to learn about Witt-
genstein from two people: Peter Hacker, whose writings on
this subject have also been invaluable to me, and Ralph
Walker.
At Princeton I benefited from the teaching of Saul Kripke,
whose written work on Wittgenstein has again been invalu-
able to me.
I have also benefited greatly from discussions of Wittgen-
stein, begun when we were graduate students at Princeton
and continued on and off since then, with Paul Boghossian,
whose written work on this subject has also been a model for
me, and Mark Johnston.
I would also like to thank my many colleagues at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, who have provided such an intellectually
stimulating, supportive, and friendly environment over the
years.
I also owe thanks to audiences at several institutions who
heard parts of this work delivered as talks and offered helpful
feedback, including, in the United States, the University of
Chicago, New York University, and Northwestern University,
and overseas, the University of Athens, the Friedrich Schiller
University in Jena, and Peking University.
I am also heavily indebted to several people who were of
crucial help in the late stages of this project. I was extraordi-
narily fortunate to have Paul Horwich and Gideon Rosen as