The research carried out as part of the Wittgenstein and Political Theory project revolves around three main themes.
The first theme comprises the political aspects of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. By focusing on Wittgenstein’s later thought the project highlights how: i) Wittgenstein’s later approach to language may be viewed as a critique of the phenomenon of reification of language and meaning, ii) his later metaphilosophical remarks sketch an approach to (a new kind of) philosophy as a therapeutic enterprise aiming to treat certain philosophical, intellectual, and, in the end, social mystifications, iii) Wittgenstein’s discussions of rule-following may be approached as underlining human communities as the source of normativity and accentuating the self-instituting, self-signifying character of the human form(s) of life, iv) Wittgenstein’s arguments against the very idea of a private language may be read as an explication of the social relation of the common, with language emerging as the immaterial common par excellence, and v) his remarks on the philosophy of psychology do not just constitute a critique of the reification of the ‘inner’, but also bring to fore the relation of interpenetrability and mutual constitution between the symbolic and the corporeal, the cultural and the natural.
The second theme concerns Wittgenstein’s influence on contemporary political theory. Among the many traditions engaging with and influenced by Wittgenstein’s philosophy, the project focuses on the case of contemporary Italian theory, by, first, examining the political interpretation and employment of Wittgenstein’s ideas in the works of Cacciari, Agamben, and Virno, and, second, engaging closely with Wittgenstein’s influence on Negri, especially with regard to the issue of the common as a social relation antagonistic to that of property. Our relevant research stresses the original manner in which certain issues in Wittgenstein scholarship, such as the one of the continuity of Wittgenstein’s thought, are treated in contemporary Italian theory, the ways in which certain implicit political aspects of Wittgenstein’s thought are made explicit through that engagement, and the political potential of certain remarks of Wittgenstein that still have not received the proper attention, even within Italian theory.
The third theme relates to the question of how Wittgenstein’s thought may inform the discussions regarding contemporary political issues. The specific issue addressed by the project is that of the status and role of reification in late capitalism. Starting from Hardt and Negri’s analysis of the tendential hegemony of immaterial (i.e. cognitive/affective) labour as characteristic of late capitalism, the project highlights the intensification of reification, but also of the potentialities for its overcoming, in our times, and some ways in which Wittgenstein’s later philosophy may contribute to the discussion of the issue, especially considering how language (or the symbolic in general) and subjectivity have become directly productive of economic value.
The research carried out as part of the Wittgenstein and Political Theory project and its results have been presented at several academic (conferences, workshops, lectures) and non-strictly academic (open reading and cinema groups, seminars) events. Furthermore, a workshop on ‘Wittgenstein and the Political’ was organized as part of the project in July 2018 at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, with plenary talks given by leading international scholars and the participation of a number of junior and senior scholars from various countries.
