Lucilla Guidi

11 DECEMBER | 4 PM (UTC)

11 AM New York
1 PM Brasilia
4 PM Lisbon
5 PM Berlin
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ABSTRACT

In my talk, I will examine Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations in the light of Pierre Hadot’s account of philosophy as a “spiritual exercise” (Hadot 1995). First of all, I will focus on the aesthetic, literary form of the Investigations to emphasize that they embody an open-ended dialogue with oneself that aims at transforming one’s way of seeing things and thus one’s attitude towards oneself, others and the world. Second, drawing on Wittgenstein’s reflections on “aspect-seeing” and “aspect-blindness” (Wittgenstein PPF, 2009), I will argue that the Investigations invite the reader to perform a series of self-transformative practices of imagination. Through these practices, one engages in an ongoing critical confrontation both with one’s own embodied prejudices and “blindnesses” and with one´s own “Cartesian habits of thought” (cf. Leeten 2023). Hence, on the one hand, through these exercises, one becomes aware from within of the various ways in which one avoids taking responsibility for expressing oneself, responding to others, and contributing to the expressiveness of our shared life in language. On the other hand, through these exercises, one becomes aware from within of one´s own (Cartesian) self-understanding as a self-sufficient and sovereign subject. In the third and final part of the talk, I will argue that Wittgenstein’s method of “Übersichtliche Darstellung” (PI 2009 § 122), his use of similes and analogies, can be understood as practices of imagination that invite us to look at things from different perspectives, thereby shifting their contexts, revealing new aspects of them, and thus changing our way of seeing them. Accordingly, I will emphasize that the Investigations embody self-transformative practices of imagination that sharpen our sensitivity to ourselves, others and the world, and invite us to a critical self-examination.

Bio

Lucilla Guidi is Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) in Ethics and Aesthetics at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her research systematically focuses on the transformative dimension of philosophy as a way of life and on the performative constitution of everyday life-practices. For this purpose, she draws on post-Kantian philosophical traditions, particularly phenomenology, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, and the paradigm of performativity. Lucilla earned her Ph.D in Philosophy in cotutelle between Italy and Germany and was Visiting Scholar at the Humboldt University of Berlin, a Postdoc Researcher at the Technical University of Dresden, and a Postdoc Researcher within the DFG Research Training Group 2477 “Aesthetic Practice” based at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. She published the monograph Il rovescio del performativo (Inschibbolleth, 2016) and edited the volumes Wittgensteinian Exercises. Aesthetic and Ethical Transformations (Brill/Fink, to be published in April 2023), and Phenomenology as Performative Exercise (Brill, 2020), the latter together with Thomas Rentsch. She is co-editor of the Book Series “Aesthetic Practice. Transdisciplinary Perspectives” (Brill/Fink).

Registration required via email to mapping.pwl@gmail.com.