Wittgenstein and Lacan at the Limit (eBook)

Dedication 6
Preface 7
Contents 10
About the Author 13
Chapter 1: Introduction 14
1.1 The Experience of Astonishment 14
1.2 A Fine Summer Day: Wittgenstein’s Description 18
1.3 A Stormy, Tiring Day: Lacan’s Description 22
References 26
Chapter 2: The Expression of Astonishment 28
2.1 A Difficulty with Meaning 28
2.2 The Groundlessness of Meaning 31
2.3 Deflection: An Avoidance of the Groundlessness of Meaning 37
2.4 The Recourse to Transcendence: Grounding Meaning in Metaphysics 38
2.5 The Recourse to Facts: Astonishment as a Grammatical Illusion 40
References 44
Chapter 3: Groundlessness in the Tractatus 45
3.1 The Tractatus: A Story About Groundlessness 45
3.2 The World Is All That Is the Case: A Moment of Astonishment 46
3.3 The Nature of Signification: The Symbol 49
3.4 Grounding Meaning in the a priori: The Lure of an Autonomous Logical Syntax 51
3.5 Why Logical Syntax Presupposes Meaningfulness 56
3.6 Grounding Meaning in the a priori: The Lure of Grounding Meaning in Objects 60
3.7 Anti-apriorism in the Tractarian Objects 64
3.8 Leaving Grounding to the Application of Logic 68
3.9 Summing Up and Moving On 72
References 76
Chapter 4: The Groundlessness of Meaning in Lacan’s Work 78
4.1 The Enthralling Phenomenon of Meaning: Introducing Lacan’s Theory of the Signifier 78
4.2 The Real: Ground and Groundlessness 84
4.3 Meaning as a Discursive Construction: The Temptation of a Recourse to Facts 86
4.4 The Real Qua Substratum: The Temptation of Metaphysics 90
4.5 Beyond the Two Temptations: The Real as Ab-sens 94
References 102
Chapter 5: From Deflection to Reflection: A Creative Involvement with Language 105
5.1 Introduction 105
5.2 The Miraculousness of a Stove in Wittgenstein and Heraclitus 107
5.3 Significance Qua Bedeutung: The Recovery of Logical Space 111
5.4 Wittgenstein’s Own Temptation to Deflect 115
5.5 An Example of Reflection 118
References 127
Chapter 6: From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Wittgenstein 130
6.1 This Running Up Against the Limits of Language Is Ethics 130
6.2 My Involvement with Meaning: A Critique of the Thinking Subject 134
6.3 My Involvement with Meaning: Willing as Acting 138
6.4 Uniqueness, Creativity, and the Ethical 141
References 148
Chapter 7: From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Lacan 150
7.1 The Ethics of the Real 150
7.2 Where It Was, I Shall Come into Being 152
7.3 What Kind of Subject? 156
7.4 Returning to the Meaning of One’s Actions: Desire and Responsibility 159
7.5 A Creative Involvement with Meaning 162
References 168
Chapter 8: Conclusion 171
References 174
Index 175