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  4. Specialization in Philosophy of Knowledge and Epistemology
  5. Research Seminar in Philosophy

Research Seminar in Philosophy

Objectives

a) Integrate the doctoral student in a research atmosphere specific to the scientific area of the course.
b) Develop tasks that aim at the grasping of the status quaestionis of the problems related to the student’s research.
c) Offer the possibility of completing and applying knowledge of a methodological kind.
d) Offer the possibility of practical contact with tools more immediately related to research as is the case of databasesor specialized libraries.

General characterization

Code

73203110

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Luís Manuel Aires Ventura Bernardo

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

  • Smith, J. (2013). Wittgenstein’s Blue Book: Reading between the Lines. In N. Venturinha (Ed.), The Textual Genesis ofWittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (pp. 37-51). New York: Routledge.
  • Venturinha, N. (2012). Sraffa’s Notes on Wittgenstein’s “Blue Book”. Nordic Wittgenstein Review, 1, 181-191.
  • Venturinha, N. (2013). Introduction: A Composite Work of Art. In N. Venturinha (Ed.), The Textual Genesis ofWittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (pp. 1-16). New York: Routledge.
  • Wittgenstein, L. (1969). Preliminary Studies for the “Philosophical Investigations”: Generally known as The Blue andBrown Books (2nd ed.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Wittgenstein, L. (2009). Philosophische Untersuchungen / Philosophical Investigations (4th ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Teaching method

The method adopted for the class combines readings and commentaries of texts in seminar along with discussion of student papers.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - Each student is required to write a paper (60%) to be presented and discussed in class (40%).(100%)

Subject matter

Readings of Wittgenstein’s “Blue Book”
The seminar concentrates on Wittgenstein’s so-called “Blue Book”, dictated in 1933-34, with the aim of investigatingthe place of this work in the development of the Philosophical Investigations. Recent studies (Smith 2013; Venturinha2013) came to show that both the “Blue Book” and the “Brown Book”, dictated in the following academic year, wereconceived by Wittgenstein for publication. It was also shown that Wittgenstein went back to the “Blue Book” in 1941,when he was preparing the Investigations (Venturinha 2012), and for that reason it is important to determine what wasthen incorporated in that work. Themes such as those of solipsism and private language deserve special attention inthe seminar. Finally, it is also important to understand to what extent the “Blue Book” finds in the “Yellow Book”,dictated at the same time, a complement in regard to these topics.