Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject [Reprint ed.] 0268159688, 9780268159689

Citation preview

ETHICS AS GRAMMAR

ETHICS AS GRAMMAR Changing the Postmodern Subject

BRAD J. KALLENBERG

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame

Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 All Rights Reserved

undpress.nd.edu

http://www.u11dpress.nd.edu Designed by Wendy McMillen Set in 11.3/i3 Electra by Em Studio Inc.

Copyright © 2001 University of Notre Dame

Published in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kallenberg, Brad J. Ethics as grammar : changing the postmodern snbject I Brad Jeffrey Kallenberg. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ISBN: 978-0-268-15968-9 —

) and index.

ISBN: 978-0-268-02760-5 (hardback)

1. Christian ethics. 2. W ittgenstein, Ludwig, 188cr-1951. 3. Hauerwas, Stanley, 1940- I. Title. BJ1251 .K245 2001 241' .0404'092-clc21

2001001291

ISBN: 978-0-268-15970-2 (web pdf)

oo

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [email protected].

To JEANNE

In whose story I am happily and inextricably embedded

r CONTENTS

Abbreviations Preface

1x

x1

Introduction ONE

Working on Oneself

11

TWO

Ethics as Aesthetics

49

THREE

This Complicated Form of Life

FOUR

Ethics as Politics

FIVE

Back to th e Rough Ground

SIX

Ethics as Grammar

Notes

83

113 ifo

255

Bibliography: Wittgenstein a n d Hauerwas General Index

321

index of Quotations

325

301

ABBREVIATIONS

WORKS

BB CE CV LC

OF

The "

WITTGENSTEIN

Blue

C ause

and Brown Books

Effect:

an d

Culture and Value Lectures 6 Conversations

LWI

Last Writings Studies for Part

on

on

Last Writings and the Outer, Notebooks,

"Notes for

oc

On

PESO

"Notes for

PG

Philosophical

the

the Philosophy

Psychology

of Psychology.

losophical

II of the Phi

on

the Philosophy

194cr 1951

1914-

NPL

PHIL

Aesthetics,

and

Religious

Ethics"

"A L ectur e

NB

on

Belief

LE

LWII

Intuitive Awareness"

Vol.

i.

Preliminary

Investigations

of Psychology.

Vol.

2.

The Inner

1916

Philos

op

hical

Lecture

Certainty Lectures

on

' Private

"

Experience'

and

'

Sense Data'"

Grammar

"Philosophy" Investigations

PI

Philos phical o

PR

Philos phical Remarks o

RC

Remarks on Colour

IX

x

Abbreviations

RFGB "Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough" RFM

Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics

RPP

Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology. Two Vol umes

S RLF

"Some Remarks on Log ical Form"

TLP

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Wittgenstein 's Lectures: Cambridge, 1930-32

WL wvc

Wittgenstein and the V ienna Circle: Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann

z

Zettel

OTH E R WORKS

NASB

New American Standard B ible. La Habra, CA: Lockman Fou nda­ tion, i977.

NEB

New E nglish Bible. Oxford and Cambridge : Delegates of the Ox­ ford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, i96i.

NRSV New Revised S tan da rd Version Bible. Oxford and New York: Ox­

ford University Press, 1989.

PREFACE

hear him speak­ Cambridge sc h ol a r h a d ma stered th e language well enough to teach n English, but he i never c ompletely divested himself of German accent and certainly pre­ ferred to write i n his native tongue. Whether one reads him in German in Engl ish, is advised to pay attention to his instruction that hi s writings must b read at the right tempo. As a student I marveled how puzzling pas­ sages would suddenly become crystal clear when my teacher, the Welshman D. Z. Phillips, would read Wittgenstein aloud. cou nt myself fortunate to have n ev er qui te recovered fr the urge to mimic Phillips's style when I re a d W i tt g e n s tei n for myself. Perhaps the greatest compliment pay Phillips is th a t, when i t to Wittgenstein, I think that he has gotten Whenever I read

ing

Wittgenstein

to me with a Welsh accent. Of

I

cannot

course,

help

but

this Austrian-born

a

or

one

e

I

om

I

can

comes

m a tte rs right.

But th ere i s m ore to

Wittge nstein than what he has said written, a n d th ere were destinations he intended to reach beyond those which ' h e h a d a rri ved at life s end. For this reason I wish to bring Wittgenstein nto i conve rs a tio n not with D. Z. Ph illipsas ubiquitous his voice may be for co ntem po r ary studies in Wittgenstein but with another voice alto­ g th e r : th a t of the theological eth icist, Stanley Hauerwas. The fact that h ave brou g h t th ese two th inkers together- an Austrian-born, Neo-Kantian Cambrid e don and a Yale-educated, hi g h- church Mennonite from Texas­ g q i some explaining. Perhaps the best way to introduce this study is simpl y to describe my methodology. It is not uncommon to find in the great of the western l d aspiring artists meticulously copying the works of the ste if and

at

as

e

re

I

u

res

art

wor

museums

ma

rs

XI

as

xu

Preface

to learn their style by rote. Yet some misguided students try to imitate abstract art i n the same way - for instance, usin g a triple-au g ht brush to reproduce the detail of paint blobs originally left in the trail of a six-inch palette knife - not realizing that the point of abstract art is not the artifact­ as-representation but a method, or skill, of expression. The goal of study­ ing this kind of art is to master the method. Much the same could be said for Wittgenstein's artistry. His works do not state philosophical theses and, therefore, cannot be outlined for their co gnitive content. Rather, they aim at changing the sensibilities and skills of the reader. The promise of real change was one 1 found worth investigating. 1 came to Wittgenstcinian studies by way of theology rather than philosophy. As it turned out, my philosophical naivete was particularly fitting for the task. Wittgenstein himself did not consider his own lack of philosophical breadth as detrimental to h is task. (On the contrary, much of his energy was directed at undoing the havoc modern philosophy had wreaked on his stu­ dents' minds . ) Moreover, Wittgenstein himself once remarked to Mau­ rice O'C. Drury that he had done everything from a religious point of view. As this perspective is frequently passed over in Wittgenstein studies, I hoped that my theological fluency mi ght pick up threads in Wittgenstein that otherwise would be overlooked. One of my earliest desires i n my graduate program in theology was to attempt a justification of narrative theology by appealing to what I was beginning to unclcrstand as "postmodern" philosophy. This hope was dashed very quickly. After a brief encounter with Wittgenstein, I realized that using his works to "j ustify" any philosophical thesis would be to miss the point of his entire project. The more I read of him, the more I was filled with a sort of terrifying fascination; I was intrigued by the vi gor of his genius but was cut to the quick by the probings of his grammatical investigations, probi ngs which threatened to leave none of my sacred stones unturned. In the midst of this initial reading it began to dawn on me that Witt­ genstein was more concerned with the manner ( including attitudes, i nten­ tions, and stance) i n which h i s students read him than with their g rasp of any putative philosophical "theses." Consequently, he deliberately crafted his writing, not for the purpose of expl icatin g and defending tenets of a philosophical system, but with an eye toward effecting a change in the way his readers perceived the world. I coul