Certainty in Action: Wittgenstein on Language, Mind and Epistemology

by Danièle Moyal-Sharrock

In Certainty in Action, Danièle Moyal-Sharrock describes how her encounter with Wittgenstein overturned her previous assumptions that the mind is a product of brain activity and that thought, consciousness, the will, feelings, memories, knowledge and language are stored and processed in the brain, by the brain . She shows how Wittgenstein enables us to veer away from this brain-centred view of intelligence and behaviour to a person-centred view focusing on ways of acting that are both diversely embedded across forms of human life and universally embedded in a single human form of life. The book traces the radical importance of action as the cohesive thread weaving through Wittgenstein's philosophy, and shows how certainty intertwines with it to produce new ways of engaging in epistemology, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language.

This selection of Moyal-Sharrock's essays vividly illustrates some of the ways in which Wittgenstein's pioneering enactivism has impacted – and can further impact – not only philosophy, but also neighbouring disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, primatology, evolutionary psychology and anthropology. Certainty in Action is essential reading for students and researchers of these disciplines, and for anyone interested in getting a grasp of Wittgenstein's lasting genius and influence.

274 pages, Hardcover

Published April 22, 2021

Reviews

[Fernando Grumicker]

Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, along with other works such as Danièle Moyal-Sharrock -"The Third Wittgenstein: The Post-Investigations", provides an insight into the problems of contemporary philosophy together with a unique perspective on Wittgenstein's works. Her colleague Danièle Moyal-Sharrock contributes immensely to the epistemological problems present in Wittgenstein's work and in linguistics, philosophy of psychology and methodology of philosophical analysis.