Barry Smith - Wittgenstein and the nature of philosophical explanation

Barry Smith, Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, explores the nature of explanation and human consciousness.

About Barry Smith

"I'm a professor of philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London School of Advanced Study.

I'm a philosopher of mind and language, and I'm interested in how these systems help put us in touch with the world around us and with ourselves, and I'm especially interested in the senses and our sense of taste and smell."

Key Points

• Wittgenstein thought that philosophical explanation is a matter of seeing things as they really are, instead of looking for underlying causes – and sometimes no explanation is needed. • For Wittgenstein, the question of how we know whether someone else has consciousness is ridiculous – all we have to do is look at their behaviour to see the expression of the mind. • Modern neuroscience has shown us that our sense of self is just that – a sense, which relies on the proper functioning of many different subsystems.

What would satisfy us? Imagine we have a complete science of the world that’s given us an account of the nature of reality, the nature of the mind and our engagement with the world. It seems to me that philosophers would still want to ask questions. There’s a gap that science doesn’t close. There’s something that the philosopher’s after when science is finished. And the question is, what would count as a philosophical explanation?

Wittgenstein was puzzled by and haunted by that question. We know what scientific explanations are. We know that hunger to really understand and put ourselves in the right place to get a grip on what’s going on in cell biology, or the brain, or even the chemical structure of the foods that we eat. But what is a philosophical explanation, and what would satisfy us?

Wittgenstein worries that sometimes philosophers are trying to do a sort of über-science. It’s as though we want not just the physics, but something beyond the metaphysics; we’re looking for the essence or the structure of reality, or language, or mental life. Wittgenstein begins to doubt that such a quest will deliver anything useful, but he thinks we still do seek explanation.

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