Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion

Abstract

Preface ix Introduction 1 Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion 3 1.1 Wittgenstein and Religion 3 1.2 The Golden Bough 6 1.3 Wittgenstein and The Golden Bough 12 Part I Expressivism Wittgenstein's 'Expressivism' 21 2.1 The Seeds of 'Wittgenstein's Expressivism' 22 2.2 The Blossoming of the Expressive Theory 28 2.3 Beattie's Form of Expressivism 34 3 The Possibility of Expressivism 37 3.1 The Dynamics of Expressivism 37 3.2 Wittgenstein's Philosophy and the Possibility of Expressivism 44 Part II Methodology: Description and Explanation 4 Perspicuous Representation 53 4.1 The Ideal of Perspicuity in Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy 55 4.2 Perspicuous Representations and Magico-Religious Phenomena 64 4.3 Perspicuous Representation a 'Making Clear' 73 via Contents 5 The Prohibition on Explanation 79 5.1 Religion 'Without Explanation' 79 5.2 The Primitive Reaction 81 5.3 Explaining the Ritual Impulse 86 6 The Frontiers of the Remarks 93 6.1 Discontinuity Theses 93 6.2 The Remarks on Frazer and the Study of Religion 99 Part III The Natural History of a Ceremonial Animal 7 'Metaphysics as a Kind of Magic' 107 7.1 The Poetic Conception: Wittgenstein, Chesterton, Ernst 107 7.2 Wittgenstein, Magic and Metaphysics 112 7.3 'Profound, Profound': The Philosophy in Rumpelstiltskin 125 7.4 Wittgenstein and Frazer: Beyond Expressivism and Instrumentalism 129 8 Frazerian Reflections: Wittgenstein on Beltane and Human Sacrifice . 135 8.1 The Festival of Beltane 135 8.2 A Denial of Historical Understanding? 139 8.3 Something Deep and Sinister 144 8.4 A Savage and Ceremonial Animal 148 9 'The Collapse into the Inorganic' 155 9.1 'If fleas developed a rite it would be based on the dog' 156 9.2 Expression-Media 161 9.3 'A whole mythology is deposited in our language' 166 9.4 Conclusion: 'I am not a religious man ... 170 Notes 177 Bibliography 184 Index 197