Chains of Life: Turing, Lebensform, and the Emergence of Wittgenstein’s Later Style

• Published in: Nordic Wittgenstein review (Online) Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 7 - 89
• Main Author: Floyd, Juliet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nordic Wittgenstein Society 16.12.2016
• ISSN: 2194-6825; 2242-248X
• DOI: 10.15845/nwr.v5i2.3435

This essay accounts for the notion of Lebensform by assigning it a logical role in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Wittgenstein’s additions of the notion to his manuscripts of the PI occurred during the initial drafting of the book 1936-7, after he abandoned his effort to revise The Brown Book. It is argued that this constituted a substantive step forward in his attitude toward the notion of simplicity as it figures within the notion of logical analysis. Next, a reconstruction of his later remarks on Lebensformen is offered which factors in his reading of Alan Turing’s “On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem“ (1936/7), as well as his discussions with Turing 1937-1939. An interpretation of the five occurrences of Lebensform in the PI is then given in terms of a logical “regression” to Lebensform as a fundamental notion. This regression characterizes Wittgenstein’s mature answer to the question, “What is the nature of the logical?”