The "Wittgen=steine" series (organized by the Wittgenstein Research Group) features two talks this term:

• October 18th, 2024, 3:00pm to 4:30pm, HS 3B:
  Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen, "Wittgenstein and the difficulty of avoiding failures of decency"
• January 17th, 2025, 3:00pm to 4:30pm, HS 2i:
  Oskari Kuusela, "Grammar and truth"

Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen, "Wittgenstein and the difficulty of avoiding failures of decency"

Abstract: 

Taking my lead from Wittgenstein, I will investigate the difficulties involved in acknowledging one’s lack of decency and moral failures. After a short reflection on my use of the word ‘decency’, I will work to show that a vital reason why we have a tendency to avoid acknowledging our moral failures is that they bring into question our personal moral standing or moral position, and this will lead to an exploration of the idea of the personal dimension of ethics, touched upon by Wittgenstein in several remarks published in Culture and Value. The difficulties involved in acknowledging failure will also be illuminated through Hannah Arendt’s interpretation of the Socratic slogan that it is worse to do what is unjust than to suffer it. Finally, I will look at different ways in which we may work to avoid acknowledgement of failure, through revision of our moral position or by using ordinary psychological measures of repression or forms of evasion such as aggressiveness, confabulation or deferral. I finally discuss how deferral is often a component in attempts to deflect our current failure to act appropriately in the light of climate change.