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The Origins of Religion: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology and Religious studies (edited book)Luther-Agricola Society. 2017.
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97Wittgenstein and the conditions of musical communicationPhilosophy 80 (4): 513-529. 2005.If Wittgenstein's later account of language is applied to music, what seems to follow is a version of musical formalism. This is to say that the meaning of music is constituted by the rules of a given system of music, and the understanding of music is the ability to follow these rules. I argue that, while this view may seem unattractive at the outset, Wittgenstein actually held this view. Moreover, his later notion of a rule gives us resources to answer some of the traditional criticisms directe…Read more
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Wittgenstein on aesthetic normativity and grammarIn David G. Stern (ed.), Wittgenstein in the 1930s: Between the Tractatus and the Investigations, Cambridge University Press. 2018.
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354Wittgenstein and Musical Formalism: A Case RevisitedApeiron 1 (10): 9-27. 2019.This article defends a formalist interpretation of Wittgenstein’s later thought on music by comparing it with Eduard Hanslick’s musical formalism. In doing so, it returns to a disagreement I have had with Bela Szabados who, in his book Wittgenstein as a Philosophical Tone-Poet, claims that the attribution of formalism obscures the role that music played in the development of Wittgenstein’s thought. The paper scrutinizes the four arguments Szabados presents to defend his claim, pertaining to alle…Read more
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65Wittgenstein and the Limits of Language (edited book)Routledge. 2019.The limit of language is one of the most pervasive notions found in Wittgenstein's work, both in his early Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and his later writings. Moreover, the idea of a limit of language is intimately related to important scholarly debates on Wittgenstein's philosophy, such as the debate between the so-called traditional and resolute interpretations, Wittgenstein's stance on transcendental idealism, and the philosophical import of Wittgenstein's latest work On Certainty. This co…Read more
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42Wittgenstein: Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1933, From the Notes of G. E. Moore, edited by David G. Stern, Brian Rogers, and Gabriel CitronWittgenstein’s Whewell's Court Lectures: Cambridge, 1938–1941, From the Notes by Yorick Smythies, edited, introduced, and annotated by Volker A. Munz and Bernhard Ritter (review)Mind 128 (511): 984-993. 2019.Wittgenstein: Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1933, From the Notes of G. E. Moore, edited by SternDavid G, RogersBrian, and CitronGabriel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. lxxiv + 420.
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45Wittgenstein on the grounds of religious faith: A Kantian proposalEuropean Journal of Philosophy 26 (3): 1026-1040. 2018.This paper argues that there is an important continuity between Wittgenstein's early remarks on religion and his later treatment of the theme as it appears in his lectures in the 1930s and in his personal diary notes at that time. This continuity pertains to 3 features. First, the early and later Wittgenstein share a critical stance on methodological naturalism, that is, the view that the method of philosophy is relevantly similar to that of the natural sciences. Importantly, religion figures as…Read more
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44Music in German Philosophy: An Introduction edited by sorgner, stefan lorenz and oliver fürbethJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70 (2): 245-247. 2012.
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22Stephen Davies , Musical Understandings and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Music . Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 33 (1): 26-28. 2013.
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2Why does Wittgenstein say that ethics and aesthetics are one and the same?In Peter M. Sullivan & Michael D. Potter (eds.), Wittgenstein's Tractatus: history and interpretation, Oxford University Press. 2013.
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195Wittgenstein and the Limits of Musical GrammarBritish Journal of Aesthetics 53 (3): 299-319. 2013.This paper offers a Kantian reading of Wittgenstein’s later conception of rules. Building on the continuity of Wittgenstein’s comparison between a sentence and a musical theme, the paper argues that central elements of the Kantianism one may find in Wittgenstein’s early philosophy carry over to his mature conception of grammar. Moreover, this Kantian reading offers a novel perspective on the puzzle about the normativity of Wittgenstein’s later notion of rules. It is argued that the normativity o…Read more
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3Ethics and aesthetics are one and the same?In Peter M. Sullivan & Michael D. Potter (eds.), Wittgenstein's Tractatus: history and interpretation, Oxford University Press. pp. 40. 2013.
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75On Wittgenstein's Kantian solution of the problem of philosophyBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 24 (4): 697-719. 2016.ABSTRACTIn 1931 Wittgenstein wrote: ‘the limit of language manifests itself in the impossibility of describing the fact that corresponds to a sentence without simply repeating the sentence’. Here, Wittgenstein claims, ‘we are involved … with the Kantian solution of the problem of philosophy’. This paper shows how this remark fits with Wittgenstein's early account of the substance of the world, his account of logic, and ultimately his view of philosophy. By contrast to the currently influential r…Read more
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Apocalypse Now: Wittgenstein's Early Remarks on Immortality and the Problem of LifeHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 29 (2): 195-210. 2012.In this paper, I develop a Kantian reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's early notions of immortality and the problem of life. I argue that, in spite of his rejection of the assumption of temporal immortality as a solution to the problem of life, Wittgenstein's understanding of the problem itself reflects the Kantian setting of his early system. Moreover, while there is no room for any postulates of practical reason in Wittgensein's early thought, God and immortality are still notions that figure in …Read more
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85What Kind of Normativity is the Normativity of Grammar?Metaphilosophy 48 (1-2): 123-145. 2017.The overall goal of this article is to show that aesthetics plays a major role in a debate at the very center of philosophy. Drawing on the work of David Bell, the article spells out how Kant and Wittgenstein use reflective judgment, epitomized by a judgment of beauty, as a key in their respective solutions to the rule-following problem they share. The more specific goal is to offer a Kantian account of semantic normativity as understood by Wittgenstein. The article argues that Wittgenstein's re…Read more
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72Form and Freedom: The Kantian Ethos of Musical FormalismNordic Journal of Aesthetics 22 (40-41): 75-88. 2011.Musical formalism is often portrayed as the enemy of artistic freedom. Its main representative, Eduard Hanslick, is seen as a purist who, by emphasizing musical rules, aims at restricting music criticism and even musical practices themselves. It may also seem that formalism is depriving music of its ability to have moral significance, as the semantic connection to the extramusical is denied by the formalistic view. In my paper, I defend formalism by placing Hanslick’s argument in a Kantian frame…Read more
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37Representation and Reality in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (1): 217-219. 2017.