This thesis considers the implications of Wittgenstein’s early and later philosophy for the issue of religious belief, as well as the relation of religion to Wittgenstein’s thought. In the first chapter I provide an overview of the Tractatus and discuss the place of religion within the Tractarian framework. I then provide an overview of Philosophical Investigations. In the second chapter I consider interpretations by Norman Malcolm and Peter Winch of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy in relation to religion, as well as Kai Nielsen’s famous critique of ‘Wittgensteinian Fideism.’ The third and final chapter takes up the issue of construing religious belief as a distinctive language-game. I consider arguments from D. Z. Phillips and criticisms of Phillips from Mark Addis and Gareth Moore.

In this study an interpretive learning framework that aims to measure learning on the classroom level is introduced. In order to develop and evaluate the value of the framework, a theoretical/empirical study is designed. The researcher attempted to illustrate how the proposed framework provides insights on the problem of classroom-level learning. The framework is developed by construction of connections between the current literature on science learning and Wittgenstein's language-game theory. In this framework learning is defined as change of classroom language-game or discourse. In the proposed framework, learning is measured by analysis of classroom discourse. The empirical explanation power of the framework is evaluated by applying the framework in the analysis of learning in a fifth-grade science classroom. The researcher attempted to analyze how students' colloquial discourse changed to a discourse that bears more resemblance to science discourse. The results of the empirical part of the investigation are presented in three parts: first, the gap between what students did and what they were supposed to do was reported. The gap showed that students during the classroom inquiry wanted to do simple comparisons by direct observation, while they were supposed to do tool-assisted observation and procedural manipulation for a complete comparison. Second, it was illustrated that the first attempt to connect the colloquial to science discourse was done by what was immediately intelligible for students and then the teacher negotiated with students in order to help them to connect the old to the new language-game more purposefully. The researcher suggested that these two events in the science classroom are critical in discourse change. Third, it was illustrated that through the academic year, the way that students did the act of comparison was improved and by the end of the year more accurate causal inferences were observable in classroom communication. At the end of the study, the researcher illustrates that the application of the proposed framework resulted in an improved version of the framework. The improved version of the proposed framework is more connected to the topic of science learning, and is able to measure the change of discourse in higher resolution.

Based on the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario), 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-69). Available on-line.

In this thesis, in which urban and regional planning in South Africa was treated as a complex language game with a past of over one and a half century, it was argued that radical changes in the context in which this game is played, necessitate in-depth inquiries into its future. In addition to this, it was premised that a thorough understanding of the past is imperative for any probe into the future. Consequently the first part of the thesis was devoted to a cognitive mapping of the game's past, mainly by using the printed discourse of its players. The result of this endeavour was a composite map indicating where, how, by whom and according to which and whose rules the game had been played and how and why each of these had changed over time. In the second part of the thesis, in which three maps were produced, the focus shifted to the game's future. In the first of these three maps the context in which the game is played, the impact of this particular context on the game and vice versa, as well as the trends and tendencies impacting on this context, were mapped. By extrapolating these trends and tendencies it was possible to construct a range of possible and probable futures, which was done in the second map. Together with the composite map of the game's past, these two maps were then used to determine whether the game has a future, and if so, how this future could become a reality. In this inquiry it was concluded that there is a definite future for the game, the realisation of which, it was argued, requires the following from the players, viz (1) dislodging the game from its roots which are grounded in a form of modernism which treats modernity as a routine and giving it a critical modernist persuasion in which modernity is seen as an adventure, (2) regaining the fervour for the game which drove the pioneers of the game at its birth and (3) ensuring that there is a need and use for the niches/fields in which the game is played, that new niches/fields are created and that existing niches/fields created by others, are filled/entered by players of the planning game. While the study was primarily intended to make a contribution to the debate on the future of the language game of South African urban and regional planning, the maps of the game's past also contribute to the sparse literature on the history of the game, especially its founding years, which have to date, been virtually uncharted. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 1977. / gm2014 / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

Czech language is an unattractive and boring subject for some pupils. In this work I deal with linguistic game, by which I would like to promote interest in the subject. In the theoretical part I determine the subject matter of the word classes, new algorithms and principles that should be followed in the curriculum. In addition, there is a definition of game and its place in the life of a child. Other concepts, such as "didactic play" and "language game", are explained as well. In the practical part I analyze the questionnaire, which is concerned with language games in the third and fourth year of primary school. I evaluate teachers' opinions on play, if they involve games during their lessons and whether pupils play these games with interest or not. This section also contains a reservoir of language games that are designed to practice and consolidate the particular curriculum. I tried to link theory with practice as much as possible. The main aim of my thesis is to use games to make teaching methods more interesting and fun for children.

The purpose of this study is to show transitions between verbal and visual meaning in ordinary language, based on philosophical concepts and conceptual artworks. It offers models for artistic research and collaboration in arts and science. Shared experiences in ordinary language are fundamental to this thesis and make it an accessible and trans-disciplinary study. Language as such, is approached from different practices and disciplines and becomes the central object of investigation. The research introduces a general set of mechanisms in language, stemming from the Wittgensteinian notion of the language-game. The study examines the possibility of a meeting between the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the writer Gertrude Stein in a linguistic, biographical and poetic sense. The main claim is that Wittgenstein and Stein share the understanding of language as a game, which is a fruitful principle for artistic and poetic production. Gertrude Stein developed a dimension in her writing which partly succeeds in showing this notion of creating meaning-as-practice and making sense on the ‘edge’ of conventional meaning. In this way she augments Wittgenstein’s idea of the language-game and puts it into practice, tests its limits on her own language and on the reader’s habits. The artistic works represented in this thesis are equally experimental tests of Wittgenstein’s meaning-as-use hypothesis. They put his ideas into practice. They extend the research with strategies from the arts, poetry and fiction. The methodology of the research is based on Wittgenstein’s notion of meaning as context-dependent use. This concept defines the meaning of a word by the way it is used in a specific context. This perspective is then challenged with visual artistic work. This hypothesis is tested throughout the research by applying tools and concepts from several practices, like computer linguistic tools, collaboration with writers and artists from other fields and autonomous visual and poetic work to augment the study of facts. Conceptual artworks, often produced in collaboration, function as language experiments, or language-games. The Wittgensteinian differentiation between what can be shown and what can be said is examined. The context of the research lies in the practices developed as a conceptual artist in which theoretical research informs artistic practice. This thesis, on the border between verbal and visual language, is founded upon antecedent studies in philosophy of language and the practice of Fine Arts. Against this background the research focuses on the relationship between word, context and meaning: issues of communication, ordinary language, words and their composition, context-based meaning, naming visual phenomena, examination of word-and-world-relationships and vocabularies. Main sources are the major works and biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gertrude Stein, the critical work of Marjorie Perloff, language philosophers concerned with ordinary language and the contrastive corpus linguistic approach. The results of this research are generated by several interdisciplinary productive methods. Artworks, poetic and scientific work, all of which employ modes of language, and whose their domains overlap. Additionally, the notion of meeting acts as model metaphor for the development of a solid trans-disciplinary methodology for research between science and the arts. One major result of comparing their ideas on language is reflected in the meeting of the language used by Wittgenstein and Stein. Their meeting is materialized in the computer generated Shared Vocabulary, which is a list of words which both Wittgenstein and Stein used in their writing. It applies linguistic tools from contrastive corpus linguistics to compare their vocabularies (corpora), which offers new methods for investigating the works of the philosopher Wittgenstein and writer Stein. Generally, this thesis may act as an introduction to language as ideal fundament for interdisciplinary study. The application of the principle of the language-game (Wittgenstein) is a significant of displaying possible strategies for artists and researchers who work transdisciplinarily. The research results directly inform practice and practitioners from other fields, which means that collaboration is central to the research. It implies that language permeates every sort of research, art and its discourse. It also suggests that the meaning of words and images depend on their use, which extends the Wittgensteinian meaning-as-use hypothesis to visual language. The findings of the research on vocabularies are quite specific, but they overlap with offering simple general mechanisms of the language-game. The consequent alliance of the discussion with the language of the everyday makes the research a general contribution to everyone who is genuinely interested in language and the arts.

The relationship between language and self has interested anthropologists for a long time. They have raised, for example, such questions as follows: Is language (i.e., a corpus of vocabulary words) the representation of one's worldview? Or is it language that affects one's worldview? In this study I attempt to examine the relationship between language and self from a different angle; a self dialogized in the process of language interactions. Although comprehension of language structure (such as grammatical rules) among interlocutors is crucial for communication, there are other elements that influence the ways the individuals communicate. My examination of the Iran language practice of ta'arof, hopefully contributes to an understanding of such elements. In ta'arof, Iranians communicate with one another by conveying what they do not mean to say. Examination of ta'arof allowed me to explore a dynamic mechanism in which a self is dialogized through language interaction. I studied this aspect by using research findings that gathered in Iran and the U.S.

Qual é o lugar da escrita no ensino da filosofia no Ensino Médio? Partindo desta pergunta e sob a perspectiva da cultura e da linguagem, defende-se a tese de que uma das formas viáveis da filosofia poder contribuir para a formação do jovem contemporâneo brasileiro é realizar essa atividade intelectual com ênfase na idéia do desdobramento leitura-escrita, concebendo esta última como produtora e estruturadora de pensamento. Trata-se de uma reflexão sobre a escrita filosófica, viabilizada pela leitura de quem intenciona a escrita e não pela leitura para saber, isto é, para acumular ou reproduzir conhecimento. Desde seu momento inaugural, com Platão, a tradição filosófica reserva à escrita um segundo plano, geralmente como registro ou atividade auxiliar para avaliação do aprendizado através da leitura ou do diálogo. Nos contextos de crise, é vista por alguns com desconfiança; por outros, como privilégio reservado a poucos. O que se constata, é que a escrita é uma das atividades essenciais do filosofar e possui caráter formador que precisa ser valorizado. Raros são os pensadores que não escreveram e, além do mais, vive-se num contexto em que a escrita, num sentido geral, é onipresente. A escrita filosófica, no nível da formação média, pode ser um contraponto às várias modalidades de produções disponíveis, caracterizadas pela velocidade e superficialidade. Sua consistência, tempo e modo de elaboração servem como resistência ao descartável. Sua finalidade é produzir sentido, nesse jogo de linguagem que é a filosofia. / What is the place of writing in the teaching of Philosophy in high school? Setting forth from this question, analyzed under the perspective of culture and language, herein is defended the idea that one of the viable ways by which Philosophy can contribute to the formation of the contemporary Brazilian youth is through the accomplishment of this intellectual activity with emphasis on the unfolding of the reading-writing idea, conceiving the last as the producer and organizer of thought. It is a reflection about the philosophical writing, made feasible through the reading by whom the writing is intended and not through the reading to learn, i.e., to accumulate or reproduce knowledge. From its debut, with Plato, the philosophical tradition spares to writing a second plan, usually as a registry or activity to assist the evaluation of the learning through the reading or the dialogue. In the context of crisis, it is viewed with suspicion by some; by others, as a privilege reserved for few. What is seen is that writing is one of the essential activities of philosophizing and it has a moulding character which must be appreciated. Rare are the thinkers who have not written and, besides it, it is set in a context in which the writing, in a general sense, is omnipresent. The philosophical writing, at high school formation level, can be a counterpoint to the various modes of production available, categorized by speed and shallowness. Its consistency, time and mode of elaboration serve as resistance to the disposable. Its aim is to produce meaning, in this language game which is called Philosophy.

This thesis is an inquiry into the human activity of designing computer artifacts that are useful to people in their daily activity at work. The emphasis is on opportunities and constraints for industrial democracy and quality of work. First, the philosophical foundation of design of computer artifacts is con­sidered. The need for a more fundamental understanding of design than the one offered by rationalistic systems thinking is argued. The alternative design philosophy suggested is based on pragmatic interpretations of the philosophies of existential phenomenology, emancipatory practice, and or­dinary language. Design is seen as a concerned social and creative activity founded in our traditions, but aiming at transcending them by anticipation and construction of alternative futures. Second, it is argued that the existing disciplinary boundaries between natural sciences, social sciences and humanities are dysfunctional for the subject matter of designing computer artifacts. An alternative under­standing of the subject matter and a curriculum for its study is discussed. The alternative emphasizes social systems design methods, a new theoreti­cal foundation of design, and the new potential for design in the use of prototyping software and hardware. The alternative also emphasizes the need to learn from other more mature design disciplines such as architec­tural design. Towards this background, and based on the practical research in two projects (DEMOS and UTOPIA), a view on work-oriented design of computer artifacts is presented. This concerns, thirdly, the collective resource approach to design of com­puter artifacts - an attempt to widen the design process to also include trade union activities, and the explicit goal of industrial democracy in design and use. It is argued that a participative approach to the design process is not sufficient in the context of democratization. However, it is suggested that it is technically possible to design computer artifacts based on criteria such as skill and democracy at work, and a trade union investigation and negotia­tion strategy is argued for as a democratic and workable complement to traditional design activities. Finally, a tŒil perspective - the ideal of skilled workers and designers in coopération designing computer artifacts as tools for skilled work is consid­ered. It is concluded that computer artifacts can be designed with the ideal of c rail tools for a specific profession, utilizing interactive hardware devices and the computer's capacity for symbol manipulation to create this resemblance, and that a tool perspective, used with care, can be a useful design ideal. However, the ideological use of a tool metaphor is also taken into account, as is the instrumental blindness a tool perspective may create towards the importance of social interaction competence at work. / digitalisering@umu

This study aims at investigating Wittgenstein&rsquo / s conception of meaning. In this sense, philosopher&rsquo / s early and later periods will be examined. Key notions of Wittgenstein&rsquo / s philosophy of language, picture theory of meaning, language-game, rule following, Private Language Argument and his assertion that &lsquo / meaning is use&rsquo / will be analyzed. Out of this analysis, Wittgenstein&rsquo / s answer to the following basic question will be sought: How is meaning derived in a language? The outcome of this query will be comparatively read with four linguistic theories so as to position Wittgenstein&rsquo / s conception of meaning with regard to the linguistic turn. As a result of this, it will be argued that Wittgensteinian meaning can be regarded as the very first step of post-structural understanding of meaning and discourse theory.