PLAYING ETHICS AND TEACHING MORALITY

HOW WITTGENSTEIN COULD HELP US TO APPLY GAMES TO THE MORAL LIVING

Abstract

In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations the notion of a ‘language game’ gives human communication a regained flexibility. Contrary to the Tractatus, the ethical domain now composes one language game among others, being expressed in various types of sentences such as moral judgments, imperatives and praises, and being shared in activity by a human form of life. The aim of this paper is to show that the same moves that allow for a moral language game are the ones allowing for learning and teaching about the moral living, where persuasion takes the place of argument by means of a plural appeal. For this purpose, literature would seem to be one of the best tools at our disposal. As a way of exemplifying our moral engagement to literature I proceed at last to a brief analysis of Tolstoy’s Father Sergius, to show how playing this game would help us accomplish this pedagogical enterprise.