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A Companion to Wittgenstein on EducationWittgenstein and Foucault: The Limits and Possibilities of Constructivism

A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education: Wittgenstein and Foucault: The Limits and Possibilities... [MarshallMarshall, James (1995) once argued that Wittgenstein’sWittgenstein social constructivist view of mathematicsMathematics is not ‘idealistic’, ‘relativistic’ or ‘subjectivistic’ but rather is ‘non-idealistic and objective’. Wittgenstein is not idealistic because he attacks the prioritizing of mental states over linguistic accompaniments of those internal states. What he emphasizes is not intuition or mental process but the use of languageLanguage. This, says MarshallMarshall, James, is an objective criterion, for although mathematicsMathematics is ‘invented’ rather than ‘discovered’, the manner of its invention is in the form of discursive construction and in this sense it is independent of the individuals who use it as are the criteriaCriteria of the truth and falsity of its propositionsPropositions. It is thus non-foundational in the Russellian/Fregian senses. Rather, its objectivity is guaranteed by understandingUnderstanding mathematical objectsObject within a formal languageLanguage system. Truth in this sense depends on correct derivation in terms of the rule structure of the ‘language game’ relative to a ‘form of life’. Truth is thus ‘internal to a scheme’. In this article, I compare WittgensteinWittgensteinto FoucaultFoucault, Michel with respect to the issues of idealismIdealism, scepticism and languageLanguage to highlight some of the main issues which seem to me central to any serious consideration of the limits and possibilities of social constructivism. These relate to (1) the central differences between radical constructivismConstructivism and social constructionism, and (2) the extent to which the problem of relativism is overcome by WittgensteinWittgensteinand FoucaultFoucault, Michel making comparisons between the two thinkers. In completing these tasks, I will also consider some of the contributions of Foucault to the constructionist debate.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Companion to Wittgenstein on EducationWittgenstein and Foucault: The Limits and Possibilities of Constructivism

Editors: Peters, Michael A.; Stickney, Jeff
Olssen, Mark
A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education — May 4, 2017
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Publisher
Springer Singapore
Copyright
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
ISBN
978-981-10-3134-2
Pages
305 –320
DOI
10.1007/978-981-10-3136-6_20
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[MarshallMarshall, James (1995) once argued that Wittgenstein’sWittgenstein social constructivist view of mathematicsMathematics is not ‘idealistic’, ‘relativistic’ or ‘subjectivistic’ but rather is ‘non-idealistic and objective’. Wittgenstein is not idealistic because he attacks the prioritizing of mental states over linguistic accompaniments of those internal states. What he emphasizes is not intuition or mental process but the use of languageLanguage. This, says MarshallMarshall, James, is an objective criterion, for although mathematicsMathematics is ‘invented’ rather than ‘discovered’, the manner of its invention is in the form of discursive construction and in this sense it is independent of the individuals who use it as are the criteriaCriteria of the truth and falsity of its propositionsPropositions. It is thus non-foundational in the Russellian/Fregian senses. Rather, its objectivity is guaranteed by understandingUnderstanding mathematical objectsObject within a formal languageLanguage system. Truth in this sense depends on correct derivation in terms of the rule structure of the ‘language game’ relative to a ‘form of life’. Truth is thus ‘internal to a scheme’. In this article, I compare WittgensteinWittgensteinto FoucaultFoucault, Michel with respect to the issues of idealismIdealism, scepticism and languageLanguage to highlight some of the main issues which seem to me central to any serious consideration of the limits and possibilities of social constructivism. These relate to (1) the central differences between radical constructivismConstructivism and social constructionism, and (2) the extent to which the problem of relativism is overcome by WittgensteinWittgensteinand FoucaultFoucault, Michel making comparisons between the two thinkers. In completing these tasks, I will also consider some of the contributions of Foucault to the constructionist debate.]

Published: May 4, 2017

Keywords: Idealism; Constructivism; Foucault; Wittgenstein; Discourse; Language

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