Review of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology by Malcolm Budd 203p (1989) (Review Revised 2019)

The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 2nd Edition, 2019

24 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2019

Date Written: April 17, 2019

Abstract

A superb effort, but in my view Wittgenstein (i.e., philosophy or the descriptive psychology of higher order thought) is not completely understood by anyone, so we can hardly expect Budd, writing in the mid 80’s, without the modern dual systems of thought view, and no comprehensive logical structure of rationality, to have grasped him completely. Like everyone, he does not get that W’s use of the word ‘grammar’ refers to our innate Evolutionary Psychology and the general framework of Wittgenstein’s and Searle’s work since laid out (e.g., in my recent articles) was unavailable to him. Nevertheless, he does a good job and nicely complements the work by Johnston (Wittgenstein: Rethinking the Inner) which I have also reviewed. Budd’s summary is a fitting end to the book (p165). “The repudiation of the model of ‘object and designation’ for everyday psychological words—the denial that the picture of the inner process provides a correct representation of the grammar of such words, is not the only reason for Wittgenstein’s hostility to the use of introspection in the philosophy of psychology. But it is its ultimate foundation.”

An excellent study, but in my view, like them all, it falls short of a full appreciation of W as I explain here and in my other reviews.

Keywords: ludwig wittgenstein, malcolm budd, metaphysics, metaphilosophy, nativism, innateness, behaviorism, functionalism, computationalism, dynamic systems theory, dualism, epistemology, phenomenology, propositions

Suggested Citation

Starks, Michael, Review of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology by Malcolm Budd 203p (1989) (Review Revised 2019) (April 17, 2019). The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 2nd Edition, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3373922

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