Baker vs Hacker: Wittgenstein and His Interpreters

Eis um trecho da uma resenha de Wittgenstein and His Interpreters, editado por Guy Kahane, Edward Kanterian e Oskari Kuusela (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), que saiu na Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews:

Over the last decade or so two major controversies have developed in the field of Wittgenstein studies. The first, and still the most prominent, concerns the quite general question of Wittgenstein's intentions in his philosophical investigations. One school of thought, the Bakerians (the late Gordon Baker was a prime exponent of this view), argued that all of Wittgenstein's studies were aimed at resolving the philosophical pathologies into which his friends and acquaintances had fallen. Each study was directed at a particular individual. So the interlocutors in the 'debates' in the Philosophical Investigations can be identified with this or that person -- not all are versions of Bertrand Russell. On Certainty is, as it seems on the surface to be, a debate with G. E. Moore. Opposed to this line are the Hackerites, of whom the most influential has been Peter Hacker himself. He holds that whatever might have been the initial prompting to look for a therapy for a philosophical malaise suffered by someone Wittgenstein knew, the results of Wittgenstein's studies are not accidentally contributions to philosophy of general import, but were intended to be. I must confess that I am a Hackerite. None the less, the therapeutic strand is there and significant. But it is a therapy for any or all of us who make use of this or that language to manage our lives.
[...]
The book under review is mostly concerned with the issue between the Bakerians and Hackerites. As such it is already a tad out of date. However, Gordon Baker, to whom this collection is dedicated, was a skilled philosopher and a scholar of great distinction. The existence of this collection is a fitting tribute to him. Even though I think the focus of the most recent Wittgenstein studies has been the Third Wittgenstein question, the debate between the Bakerians and the Hackerites underlies just about everything one would want to say about the import of Wittgenstein's writings. [Rom Harré, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2008-05-29]

Bueno, sou um Hackerite também. Escrevi um artigo logo que voltei de Oxford, onde estive por um ano sob a orientação de Baker, em que eu analisava criticamente o artigo dele "The Private Language Argument", publicado em Languagem and Communication (Vol. 18, n. 4, 1998, pp. 325-356) e republicado apenas parcialmente em Wittgenstein's Method (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006). Nesse artigo ele defende -- contra sua própria interpretação anterior -- a interpretação descrita acima, mas o foco da sua atenção é a passagem da Investigações Filosóficas geralmente denominada de argumento da linguagem privada. Cheguei a iniciar a discussão com Baker antes de voltar para o Brasil. Mas infelizmente a morte o impediu de ler a primeira versão do meu artigo, que redigi quando já estava de volta. Vou ler essa coleção assim que possível para decidir se meu artigo ainda tem alguma contribuição e poderia ser encaminhado para publicação. Talvez eu o disponibilize no meu site, depois de uma revisão, para a obtenção de uma apreciação crítica dos interessados no assunto.



Fotos: Baker (esquerda) Hacker (direita).