Marvin Thinschmidt
Universität Potsdam
Understanding what it means to follow a rule is at the heart of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. The core of his argument is that an expression of a rule cannot by itself determine its application. This is because it is always possible to interpret a rule in the opposite way to its ordinary usage. The upshot of this is that the act of rule-following is in a constitutive way fundamental to the expression of the corresponding rule. This argument is discussed primarily in terms of the meaning of linguistic expressions.
In his survey ‘The Rule-Following Considerations’, Paul Boghossian argues that such rule-following arguments target not only the content of linguistic expressions, but also the content of intentional mental states, if one takes language and thought to be in a constitutive relation. According to Boghossian, it does not matter whether language or thought is the fundamental category in this relation. In this paper I argue that, apart from a possible constitutive relation, there is a common aspect of linguistic expressions and intentional mental states: Both are governed by norms, and both are therefore a way of following rules. If this is the case, then every conclusion of Wittgenstein’s rule-following investigation holds for intentional mental states as well as for linguistic expressions.
Intentionality is itself a controversial topic, but there are some necessary conditions for a state to be called intentional that are widely accepted: Intentional states are states about something. But not only are they about something, they are about something being one way rather than another. So they necessarily attribute properties to their contents. If intentional states attribute properties to their contents, then this must be described in normative terms. It is not enough to say that the state stands in a certain relation to a fact or object; one must also claim that the state represents the fact or object in a right or wrong way. And if this is the case, then intentionality must be described as a way of obeying rules.
Chair: Horia Lixandru
Time: September 11th, 16:20 – 16:50
Location: SR 1.005
SOPhiA 2026 