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Two Orders of Things: Wittgenstein on Reasons and Causes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2017

Matthieu Queloz
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Abstract

This paper situates Wittgenstein in what is known as the causalism/anti-causalism debate in the philosophy of mind and action and reconstructs his arguments to the effect that reasons are not a species of causes. On the one hand, the paper aims to reinvigorate the question of what these arguments are by offering a historical sketch of the debate showing that Wittgenstein's arguments were overshadowed by those of the people he influenced, and that he came to be seen as an anti-causalist for reasons that are in large part extraneous to his thought. On the other hand, the paper aims to recover the arguments scattered in Wittgenstein's own writings by detailing and defending three lines of argument distinguishing reasons from causes. The paper concludes that Wittgenstein's arguments differ from those of his immediate successors; that he anticipates current anti-psychologistic trends; and that he is perhaps closer to Davidson than historical dialectics suggest.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 92 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 369 - 397
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2017 

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111 Thanks to Joachim Schulte and Hans-Johann Glock for many valuable discussions and comments on this paper. Thanks also to Deborah Mühlebach, Damian Cueni, Kai Büttner, Sebastian Wyss, Reto Gubelmann, Nicole Rathgeb, Marco Toscano, Mindaugas Gilaitis, Astrid Kottmann, Susanne Huber, David Dolby, Sarah Tietz, and David Wörner, who read and commented on early versions of the material.