Reading and understanding the world as a practice: Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Dictionary for Elementary Schools.
Abstract
Ludwig Wittgenstein is known to have worked as a primary school teacher in three villages in Lower Austria from 1920 to 1926. His time as a teacher profoundly influenced what is commonly known as the “second phase” of his philosophical thinking. This period is characterized by a self-critique of the “serious errors” in his earlier work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), and a shift towards focusing on everyday language over pursuing an idealized language. Notably, the incipit of his later work, the Philosophical Investigations (1953), delves into the genetic problem of learning, the concrete conditions of language use, and the forms of life that define a language. These themes were undoubtedly influenced by Wittgenstein’s experiences as a teacher and remained central to his philosophical development. Wittgenstein’s Wörterbuch für Volksschulen, published in 1926, initially aimed to improve the spelling skills of his students. However, it also served as a sort of “philosophical crucible” where key concepts of his philosophy emerged. The Wörterbuch für Volksschulen takes a pragmatic approach, emphasizing social and historical context over purely syntactic or semantic concerns. It incorporates elements such as the need to anchor teaching in the real-world experiences of children, consideration of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and acknowledgment of language usage within specific domains of experience. These foundational ideas laid the groundwork for Wittgenstein’s later concept of language games, as he observed that «language games are the forms of language with which a child begins to make use of words» (Wittgenstein 1958: 17).
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