"Are Eyebrows Going to Be Talked of in Connection with the Eye of God?" Wittgenstein and Certainty in the Debate between Science and Religion

Gesse Stark-Smith, Macalester College

Abstract

In this paper I will argue that we can chart such a middle course through an exploration of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thought (particularly that advanced in On Certainty and Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief). I will use his thesis that meaning and certainty are context dependent to investigate how meaning is produced in science and in religion. I will start with the recognition that any system of thought must take certain basic propositions as criteria for further investigation and explore how Wittgenstein defines this idea. Next I will try to establish that religion and science do, indeed, function as two different systems or language games by illustrating their differing criteria for truth. In so doing I will reference both Wittgenstein’s works and that of some anthropologists of religion, whose work has explored a definition of religion through its use, which mirrors Wittgenstein’s location of meaning. I will then discuss how we can pick between systems within a given context by requiring that a system stand up to the criteria of justification set up for that situation.

Recommended Citation

Stark-Smith, Gesse (2007) ""Are Eyebrows Going to Be Talked of in Connection with the Eye of God?" Wittgenstein and Certainty in the Debate between Science and Religion," Macalester Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/philo/vol16/iss1/9