Philosophy Research Seminar - Olly Spinney (Manchester)

Abstract: That Wittgenstein was committed to the principle of ‘bipolarity’ during his early period is a claim which enjoys widespread agreement among scholars not inclined to read this period ‘resolutely’. On a commonly accepted reading, the principle states that it is constitutive of something’s possessing a sense that it be both capable of being true and capable of being false. Commitment to the principle of bipolarity, therefore, occasions a revisionary stance towards expressions which do not meet its requirements; on the view that the principle of bipolarity is true, entire domains of discourse risk relegation to some rank other than the sensible. Insofar as commitment to the principle of bipolarity incurs revisionary consequences, it is a good question what justification Wittgenstein had for adopting it. In this discussion I aim to examine Wittgenstein’s motivation for subscribing to the principle in question.

4.4
Roscoe Building
Manchester

Dr Stephen Ingram