Exploring Liberal Arts Through the Lens of Wittgenstein

Abstract

In this dissertation, I am engaged in discussing the possibility of defining the kind of education often referred to as the liberal arts. I attempt to consider the possibility of giving such a definition in a particular sense, namely through the language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. As a basis for my understanding of the type of education which I attempt to define I rely on Jeffrey Scheuer’s arguments concerning a response to contemporary ideals regarding liberal arts education and the arguments given today on the. Scheuer exemplifies, that the discussion on the matter tends to evoke the subject of language and this common factor between the advocate of liberal arts and Wittgesntein’s philosophy sparked my interest in examining whether there could be a worth in finding a mutual relationship between the two. I attempt to provide descriptions of the properties that the concept of liberal education appears to receive given this approach. I find that the description I reach is quite broad, echoing the breadth of the understanding of language in Wittgesntein’s philosophy and that any essential definition is, also given this philosophy, impossible of liberal education. The closest general description possible seems to me to be that Liberal arts understood in this sense is involved with a particular focus that distinguishes it from all other disciplines. Still being a discipline, since each example of liberal education must behave the same way as any other form of education as being defined, it does not prevent a general distinguishment of the education form in its focus.