Balaska Wittgenstein and Lacan at the Limit

Meaning and Astonishment
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-3-030-16939-8
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 179 Seiten

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

This book brings together the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jacques Lacan around their treatments of 'astonishment,' an experience of being struck by something that appears to be extraordinarily significant. Both thinkers have a central interest in the dissatisfaction with meaning that these experiences generate when we attempt to articulate them, to bring language to bear on them. Maria Balaska argues that this frustration and difficulty with meaning reveals a more fundamental characteristic of our sense-making capacities -namely, their groundlessness. Instead of disappointment with language's sense-making capacities, Balaska argues that Wittgenstein and Lacan can help us find in this revelation of meaning's groundlessness an opportunity to acknowledge our own involvement in meaning, to creatively participate in it and thereby to enrich our forms of life with language.


Maria Balaska is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Balaska, Maria

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Dedication;6
2;Preface;7
3;Contents;10
4;About the Author;13
5;Chapter 1: Introduction;14
5.1;1.1 The Experience of Astonishment;14
5.2;1.2 A Fine Summer Day: Wittgenstein’s Description;18
5.3;1.3 A Stormy, Tiring Day: Lacan’s Description;22
5.4;References;26
6;Chapter 2: The Expression of Astonishment;28
6.1;2.1 A Difficulty with Meaning;28
6.2;2.2 The Groundlessness of Meaning;31
6.3;2.3 Deflection: An Avoidance of the Groundlessness of Meaning;37
6.4;2.4 The Recourse to Transcendence: Grounding Meaning in Metaphysics;38
6.5;2.5 The Recourse to Facts: Astonishment as a Grammatical Illusion;40
6.6;References;44
7;Chapter 3: Groundlessness in the Tractatus;45
7.1;3.1 The Tractatus: A Story About Groundlessness;45
7.2;3.2 The World Is All That Is the Case: A Moment of Astonishment;46
7.3;3.3 The Nature of Signification: The Symbol;49
7.4;3.4 Grounding Meaning in the a priori: The Lure of an Autonomous Logical Syntax;51
7.5;3.5 Why Logical Syntax Presupposes Meaningfulness;56
7.6;3.6 Grounding Meaning in the a priori: The Lure of Grounding Meaning in Objects;60
7.7;3.7 Anti-apriorism in the Tractarian Objects;64
7.8;3.8 Leaving Grounding to the Application of Logic;68
7.9;3.9 Summing Up and Moving On;72
7.10;References;76
8;Chapter 4: The Groundlessness of Meaning in Lacan’s Work;78
8.1;4.1 The Enthralling Phenomenon of Meaning: Introducing Lacan’s Theory of the Signifier;78
8.2;4.2 The Real: Ground and Groundlessness;84
8.3;4.3 Meaning as a Discursive Construction: The Temptation of a Recourse to Facts;86
8.4;4.4 The Real Qua Substratum: The Temptation of Metaphysics;90
8.5;4.5 Beyond the Two Temptations: The Real as Ab-sens;94
8.6;References;102
9;Chapter 5: From Deflection to Reflection: A Creative Involvement with Language;105
9.1;5.1 Introduction;105
9.2;5.2 The Miraculousness of a Stove in Wittgenstein and Heraclitus;107
9.3;5.3 Significance Qua Bedeutung: The Recovery of Logical Space;111
9.4;5.4 Wittgenstein’s Own Temptation to Deflect;115
9.5;5.5 An Example of Reflection;118
9.6;References;127
10;Chapter 6: From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Wittgenstein;130
10.1;6.1 This Running Up Against the Limits of Language Is Ethics;130
10.2;6.2 My Involvement with Meaning: A Critique of the Thinking Subject;134
10.3;6.3 My Involvement with Meaning: Willing as Acting;138
10.4;6.4 Uniqueness, Creativity, and the Ethical;141
10.5;References;148
11;Chapter 7: From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Lacan;150
11.1;7.1 The Ethics of the Real;150
11.2;7.2 Where It Was, I Shall Come into Being;152
11.3;7.3 What Kind of Subject?;156
11.4;7.4 Returning to the Meaning of One’s Actions: Desire and Responsibility;159
11.5;7.5 A Creative Involvement with Meaning;162
11.6;References;168
12;Chapter 8: Conclusion;171
12.1;References;174
13;Index;175