Robert Vinten
I am a researcher at Ifilnova, Universidade Nova, in Lisbon, working on a six year project on epistemic injustice. I was previously project fellow in the FCT project Epistemology of Religious Belief: Wittgenstein, Grammar and the Contemporary World at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. My PhD research was on the relationship between Wittgenstein's philosophy and social/political philosophy. In August and September of 2017 I was a visiting researcher at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.
I have previously worked as a seminar tutor in philosophy at the University of Reading, UK, and as a lecturer (Critical Thinking) at Georgia State University, USA. Between 2006 and 2013 I was a lecturer at the Henley College, Oxon, UK - teaching Philosophy (AS/A2), Critical Thinking (AS/A2), and History (AS).
In my spare time I sometimes makes indices for philosophy books - usually books about philosophy of action, the philosophy of war, or the philosophy of J. S. Mill.
I was previously a student at Georgia State University, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Reading.
Supervisors: Nuno Venturinha, Diogo Pires Aurélio, and Robert Arrington
I have previously worked as a seminar tutor in philosophy at the University of Reading, UK, and as a lecturer (Critical Thinking) at Georgia State University, USA. Between 2006 and 2013 I was a lecturer at the Henley College, Oxon, UK - teaching Philosophy (AS/A2), Critical Thinking (AS/A2), and History (AS).
In my spare time I sometimes makes indices for philosophy books - usually books about philosophy of action, the philosophy of war, or the philosophy of J. S. Mill.
I was previously a student at Georgia State University, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Reading.
Supervisors: Nuno Venturinha, Diogo Pires Aurélio, and Robert Arrington
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Books by Robert Vinten
'Wittgenstein and the Cognitive Science of Religion fills a gap in the literature exploring in illuminating and provocative ways how Wittgenstein's thought can be profitably used in the emerging field of cognitive science of religion' - Nuno Venturinha, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal.
'This collection of essays, edited by Robert Vinten, explores naturalism as an approach to religion, thus continuing the path of Hume or Freud. Its originality lies in not taking naturalism for granted, rather seeing it under the critical light of Wittgenstein' - Sofia Miguens, Professor of Philosophy, University of Porto, Portugal.
'The volume as a whole usefully discloses what CSR has to learn from Wittgenstein – most notably, a cautiousness about locating the origins of religious beliefs and inclinations in unconscious and essentially imperceptible cognitive systems within the brain. Wittgenstein’s emphasis on the embeddedness of our beliefs and actions in sociocultural "forms of life" (which are no less natural for being social and cultural) is a helpful reminder in this regard...
the volume undoubtedly showcases important areas of methodological engagement, disagreement, and potential complementarity between Wittgensteinian and cognitive scientific approaches. It inaugurates conversations that could be developed in future work, perhaps with application to more thoroughly worked out examples of religious practices and ways of being. The editor and contributors are to be congratulated on putting together a volume with the capacity to stimulate further methodological debate in the philosophical and scientific study of religion.' - Mikel Burley, in Religious Studies.
Reviews: “Robert Vinten has produced an impressively meticulous and wide-ranging discussion of how Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy can revitalize the social sciences. There is insight and scholarship on every page. This important book will open up new possibilities for both philosophers and social scientists.” — Leonidas Tsilipakos, Lecturer, University of Bristol, UK
"Robert Vinten's Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences (2020) is one of a small handful of books that have tried to take seriously the idea that Wittgenstein's philosophy is relevant to the task of understanding the social world, and perhaps relevant to the social sciences...Vinten's approach is distinctive and substantial, and he discusses a literature that did not exist at the time of Winch's or Pitkin's writing". — Daniel Little, University of Michigan, Dearborn, USA.
"Robert Vinten's book Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences - Action, Ideology, and Justice is another symptom of Wittgenstein's ongoing impact on philosophical practice. It join's a literature dedicated to expanding that impact into areas to which Wittgenstein himself paid less attention (say, the philosophy of art, of the social sciences, of education, etc.) or into traditions in which that impact was less felt (say, phenomenology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, etc.). It will surely prove to be a useful and valuable addition to this literature" — Rafael Lopes Azize, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.
“Vinten’s book will be an invaluable tool for anyone interested in the social relevance of Wittgenstein’s later thought.” — Nuno Venturinha, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal
Tópicos. Revista de filosofía de Santa Fe
Número 33, junio de 2017
ÍNDICE:
PEDRO KARCZMARCZYK, Introducción …1 //
Artículos:
SAMUEL CABANCHIK, Ética y política: dimensiones prácticas de la experiencia del lenguaje en el filosofar wittgensteiniano …13 //
ISABEL GAMERO CABRERA, Juegos de lenguaje sociales y palabras que dañan. Un estudio sobre la interpretación aplicada de la obra del segundo Wittgenstein ...45 //
PEDRO KARCZMARCZYK, Wittgenstein, la filosofía del concepto y la estrategia de su filosofía ...77 //
ROBERT VINTEN, Interpretaciones de Wittgenstein por marxistas ingleses: una crítica ….112 //
Reseñas:
JAVIER VILANOVA ARIAS, Cristina Bosso (comp.), El Concepto de Filosofía en Wittgenstein …136 //
Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?
script=sci_issuetoc&pid=1666-485X20170001&lng=es&nrm=iso
y en: http://www.redalyc.org/toc.oa?id=288&numero=52000
Chapters in Books by Robert Vinten
https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/64b55e72f4428a00018aac21
The book Formas de Vida/Forms of Life/Formes de Vie (edited by André Barata and José Manuel Santos) also includes chapters by José Manuel Santos (UBI), Claire Pignol (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Emmanuel Picavet (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Maria João Cabrita (Universidade de Évora), Gonçalo Marcelo (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), Ana Leonor Santos and André Barata (UBI), Irene Viparelli (Universidade de Évora), Daniel Melo (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), and Irene Borges-Duarte (Universidade de Évora). It can be downloaded for free from here https://ubibliorum.ubi.pt/handle/10400.6/12231 and it is also possible to order print copies of it.
https://www.peterlang.com/view/9783631857519/html/ch19.xhtml
Papers by Robert Vinten
It is possible to read 'Wittgenstein, Quasi-Fideism and Scepticism' here: https://rdcu.be/cZGcf
philosophical claims made by Friedrich Hayek and then submit them to scrutiny using tools from Hayek’s cousin, Ludwig Wittgenstein.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14639947.2021.1965298
Abstract: In her recent book, A Different Order of Difficulty, Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé uses a resolute reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to highlight similarities between Wittgenstein's work and his contemporaries Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Franz Kafka. On the basis of this reading, she claims that Wittgenstein's early masterpiece is a modernist work. This article argues that there are profound problems with the resolute reading that she offers, and it suggests that 'traditional' readings of the Tractatus survive the criticisms she makes of them. Nonetheless, a case can still be made that Wittgenstein's work is a modernist one, and it is a useful exercise to compare the Tractatus with modernist works from the 1920s.
https://revistas.usantotomas.edu.co/index.php/analisis/article/view/4755
http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1666-485X2017000100005&lng=es&nrm=iso
Resumen: Tanto Perry Anderson como Alex Callinicos y Terry Eagleton han desarrollado un trabajo cultural y filosófico sobresaliente. Sin embargo, los tres han malinterpretado la obra de Ludwig Wittgenstein. La concepción de la filosofía de Wittgenstein no está en tensión con la filosofía marxista en el modo en el que ellos lo sugirieron y Wittgenstein no cometió los errores que le atribuyeron Anderson, Callinicos e Eagleton. Los marxistas se beneficiarían si consideraran más seriamente la obra de Wittgenstein porque ello los ayudaría a comprender más claramente la naturaleza de los problemas epistemológicos y metafísicos como así también los ayudaría a fortalecer y complementar sus propias concepciones de las confusiones filosóficas. En este trabajo examinaré los errores de sus interpretaciones de Wittgenstein y espero también poder proporcionar alguna indicación de las razones por las cuales Wittgenstein es considerado por muchos como el filósofo más importante del siglo XX. Abstract: Perry Anderson, Alex Callinicos, and Terry Eagleton have all produced excellent cultural and philosophical work. However, all three have misinterpreted the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy is not in tension with Marxist philosophy in the ways that they suggest and Wittgenstein did
Este trabajo examina la centralidad de la acción en las disciplinas sociales y las implicaciones de este con el fin de saber si las disciplinas sociales pueden ser llamadas científicas. Se examinan y rechazan diversas razones que califican las disciplinas sociales de científicas: 1) la afirmación de que las disciplinas sociales son reducibles a las ciencias naturales; 2) la alegación, de Donald Davidson de que las razones de la acción deben interpretarse en términos causales; 3) la afirmación de que las disciplinas sociales emplean o deberían emplear las methodologías de las ciencias naturales. La cuestíon del progreso en las disciplinas sociales es examinada críticamente. ¿ Deben adoptar los métodos de las ciencias naturales los académicos que trabajan en sociología, economía, política, geografía humana y filosofía a la aparente falta de progreso en las disciplinas sociales? Mi repuesta es negativa y comparto los puntos de vista de John Dupré contra Hutchinson, Read y Sharrock al afirmar que las disciplinas sociales pueden considerarse científicas ya que existe algo como ciencia social.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Acción, ciencias sociales, reduccionismo, progreso, causalidad.
The question of whether Wittgenstein was a liberal philosopher has received less attention than the question of whether he was a conservative philosopher but, as Robert Greenleaf Brice has recently argued, there are hints of liberalism in some of his remarks, and some philosophers, like Richard Eldridge have argued that a kind of liberalism follows from Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Richard Rorty has also drawn liberal conclusions from a philosophical viewpoint which draws on Wittgenstein’s work and Alice Crary has suggested that the lessons learned from her own interpretation of Wittgenstein are “reflected in forms of social life that embody the ideals of liberal democracy”. Here I will argue both that Wittgenstein was not a liberal and that his philosophy does not imply a liberal viewpoint. The authors discussed here do not demonstrate that any broad ideological conclusions follow from Wittgenstein’s philosophical remarks.
THE ARTICLE CAN BE DOWNLOADED VIA THIS LINK: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5912704
KEYWORDS: Wittgenstein, Liberalism, Liberal Democracy, Brice, Eldridge, Rorty, Crary.
'Wittgenstein and the Cognitive Science of Religion fills a gap in the literature exploring in illuminating and provocative ways how Wittgenstein's thought can be profitably used in the emerging field of cognitive science of religion' - Nuno Venturinha, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal.
'This collection of essays, edited by Robert Vinten, explores naturalism as an approach to religion, thus continuing the path of Hume or Freud. Its originality lies in not taking naturalism for granted, rather seeing it under the critical light of Wittgenstein' - Sofia Miguens, Professor of Philosophy, University of Porto, Portugal.
'The volume as a whole usefully discloses what CSR has to learn from Wittgenstein – most notably, a cautiousness about locating the origins of religious beliefs and inclinations in unconscious and essentially imperceptible cognitive systems within the brain. Wittgenstein’s emphasis on the embeddedness of our beliefs and actions in sociocultural "forms of life" (which are no less natural for being social and cultural) is a helpful reminder in this regard...
the volume undoubtedly showcases important areas of methodological engagement, disagreement, and potential complementarity between Wittgensteinian and cognitive scientific approaches. It inaugurates conversations that could be developed in future work, perhaps with application to more thoroughly worked out examples of religious practices and ways of being. The editor and contributors are to be congratulated on putting together a volume with the capacity to stimulate further methodological debate in the philosophical and scientific study of religion.' - Mikel Burley, in Religious Studies.
Reviews: “Robert Vinten has produced an impressively meticulous and wide-ranging discussion of how Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy can revitalize the social sciences. There is insight and scholarship on every page. This important book will open up new possibilities for both philosophers and social scientists.” — Leonidas Tsilipakos, Lecturer, University of Bristol, UK
"Robert Vinten's Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences (2020) is one of a small handful of books that have tried to take seriously the idea that Wittgenstein's philosophy is relevant to the task of understanding the social world, and perhaps relevant to the social sciences...Vinten's approach is distinctive and substantial, and he discusses a literature that did not exist at the time of Winch's or Pitkin's writing". — Daniel Little, University of Michigan, Dearborn, USA.
"Robert Vinten's book Wittgenstein and the Social Sciences - Action, Ideology, and Justice is another symptom of Wittgenstein's ongoing impact on philosophical practice. It join's a literature dedicated to expanding that impact into areas to which Wittgenstein himself paid less attention (say, the philosophy of art, of the social sciences, of education, etc.) or into traditions in which that impact was less felt (say, phenomenology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, etc.). It will surely prove to be a useful and valuable addition to this literature" — Rafael Lopes Azize, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.
“Vinten’s book will be an invaluable tool for anyone interested in the social relevance of Wittgenstein’s later thought.” — Nuno Venturinha, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal
Tópicos. Revista de filosofía de Santa Fe
Número 33, junio de 2017
ÍNDICE:
PEDRO KARCZMARCZYK, Introducción …1 //
Artículos:
SAMUEL CABANCHIK, Ética y política: dimensiones prácticas de la experiencia del lenguaje en el filosofar wittgensteiniano …13 //
ISABEL GAMERO CABRERA, Juegos de lenguaje sociales y palabras que dañan. Un estudio sobre la interpretación aplicada de la obra del segundo Wittgenstein ...45 //
PEDRO KARCZMARCZYK, Wittgenstein, la filosofía del concepto y la estrategia de su filosofía ...77 //
ROBERT VINTEN, Interpretaciones de Wittgenstein por marxistas ingleses: una crítica ….112 //
Reseñas:
JAVIER VILANOVA ARIAS, Cristina Bosso (comp.), El Concepto de Filosofía en Wittgenstein …136 //
Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?
script=sci_issuetoc&pid=1666-485X20170001&lng=es&nrm=iso
y en: http://www.redalyc.org/toc.oa?id=288&numero=52000
https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/64b55e72f4428a00018aac21
The book Formas de Vida/Forms of Life/Formes de Vie (edited by André Barata and José Manuel Santos) also includes chapters by José Manuel Santos (UBI), Claire Pignol (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Emmanuel Picavet (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Maria João Cabrita (Universidade de Évora), Gonçalo Marcelo (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), Ana Leonor Santos and André Barata (UBI), Irene Viparelli (Universidade de Évora), Daniel Melo (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), and Irene Borges-Duarte (Universidade de Évora). It can be downloaded for free from here https://ubibliorum.ubi.pt/handle/10400.6/12231 and it is also possible to order print copies of it.
https://www.peterlang.com/view/9783631857519/html/ch19.xhtml
It is possible to read 'Wittgenstein, Quasi-Fideism and Scepticism' here: https://rdcu.be/cZGcf
philosophical claims made by Friedrich Hayek and then submit them to scrutiny using tools from Hayek’s cousin, Ludwig Wittgenstein.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14639947.2021.1965298
Abstract: In her recent book, A Different Order of Difficulty, Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé uses a resolute reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to highlight similarities between Wittgenstein's work and his contemporaries Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Franz Kafka. On the basis of this reading, she claims that Wittgenstein's early masterpiece is a modernist work. This article argues that there are profound problems with the resolute reading that she offers, and it suggests that 'traditional' readings of the Tractatus survive the criticisms she makes of them. Nonetheless, a case can still be made that Wittgenstein's work is a modernist one, and it is a useful exercise to compare the Tractatus with modernist works from the 1920s.
https://revistas.usantotomas.edu.co/index.php/analisis/article/view/4755
http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1666-485X2017000100005&lng=es&nrm=iso
Resumen: Tanto Perry Anderson como Alex Callinicos y Terry Eagleton han desarrollado un trabajo cultural y filosófico sobresaliente. Sin embargo, los tres han malinterpretado la obra de Ludwig Wittgenstein. La concepción de la filosofía de Wittgenstein no está en tensión con la filosofía marxista en el modo en el que ellos lo sugirieron y Wittgenstein no cometió los errores que le atribuyeron Anderson, Callinicos e Eagleton. Los marxistas se beneficiarían si consideraran más seriamente la obra de Wittgenstein porque ello los ayudaría a comprender más claramente la naturaleza de los problemas epistemológicos y metafísicos como así también los ayudaría a fortalecer y complementar sus propias concepciones de las confusiones filosóficas. En este trabajo examinaré los errores de sus interpretaciones de Wittgenstein y espero también poder proporcionar alguna indicación de las razones por las cuales Wittgenstein es considerado por muchos como el filósofo más importante del siglo XX. Abstract: Perry Anderson, Alex Callinicos, and Terry Eagleton have all produced excellent cultural and philosophical work. However, all three have misinterpreted the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy is not in tension with Marxist philosophy in the ways that they suggest and Wittgenstein did
Este trabajo examina la centralidad de la acción en las disciplinas sociales y las implicaciones de este con el fin de saber si las disciplinas sociales pueden ser llamadas científicas. Se examinan y rechazan diversas razones que califican las disciplinas sociales de científicas: 1) la afirmación de que las disciplinas sociales son reducibles a las ciencias naturales; 2) la alegación, de Donald Davidson de que las razones de la acción deben interpretarse en términos causales; 3) la afirmación de que las disciplinas sociales emplean o deberían emplear las methodologías de las ciencias naturales. La cuestíon del progreso en las disciplinas sociales es examinada críticamente. ¿ Deben adoptar los métodos de las ciencias naturales los académicos que trabajan en sociología, economía, política, geografía humana y filosofía a la aparente falta de progreso en las disciplinas sociales? Mi repuesta es negativa y comparto los puntos de vista de John Dupré contra Hutchinson, Read y Sharrock al afirmar que las disciplinas sociales pueden considerarse científicas ya que existe algo como ciencia social.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Acción, ciencias sociales, reduccionismo, progreso, causalidad.
The question of whether Wittgenstein was a liberal philosopher has received less attention than the question of whether he was a conservative philosopher but, as Robert Greenleaf Brice has recently argued, there are hints of liberalism in some of his remarks, and some philosophers, like Richard Eldridge have argued that a kind of liberalism follows from Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Richard Rorty has also drawn liberal conclusions from a philosophical viewpoint which draws on Wittgenstein’s work and Alice Crary has suggested that the lessons learned from her own interpretation of Wittgenstein are “reflected in forms of social life that embody the ideals of liberal democracy”. Here I will argue both that Wittgenstein was not a liberal and that his philosophy does not imply a liberal viewpoint. The authors discussed here do not demonstrate that any broad ideological conclusions follow from Wittgenstein’s philosophical remarks.
THE ARTICLE CAN BE DOWNLOADED VIA THIS LINK: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5912704
KEYWORDS: Wittgenstein, Liberalism, Liberal Democracy, Brice, Eldridge, Rorty, Crary.
It is often supposed that Marxist philosophy and Wittgensteinian philosophy are not just very different but that they are opposed to each other. Wittgenstein was notoriously against theorizing in philosophy whereas Marx tried to give a scientific account of human society and culture. Marx famously said that ‘[t]he philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it’, while Wittgenstein was concerned with conceptual considerations and had very little to say about workers' struggles. My aim in this paper is to show that these apparent differences dissolve once one realizes that Marx and Wittgenstein thought differently about the nature of philosophy. In the course of coming to this conclusion I will look at misinterpretations of Wittgenstein's philosophy from Perry Anderson and Alex Callinicos as well as at Wittgensteinian criticisms of Marxist philosophers such as Leon Trotsky, John Rees and Slavoj Žižek. I will conclude that Marxist philosophers stand to gain from a clearer understanding of Wittgenstein's philosophy and that Wittgensteinians can similarly gain from an appreciation of the kind of analysis of economics, society and politics offered by Marxists.
https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0034412521000214
https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/witt.2020.11.issue-1/witt-2020-0020/witt-2020-0020.xml?format=INT
Uma manifestação foi convocada para o dia 26 de Outubro, organizada pelo movimento Vida Justa e apoiada por inúmeras organizações dedicadas ao combate ao racismo e à violência policial. Milhares desceram a Avenida da Liberdade — uma larga avenida no centro de Lisboa — em direcção aos Restauradores, a grande praça onde termina a avenida.
ARTICLE IN PORTUGUESE, SPANISH, AND CATALAN AVAILABLE here: https://marx21.net/2024/11/01/portugal-sem-justica-nao-ha-paz/
...and Robert Vinten's translation is available here: https://formadevida.org/mtelesengfdv25
Both versions are in a special issue of the journal Forma de Vida (No. 25) on feminist philosophy, which can be found here: https://formadevida.org/#fdv25feminismoexp
https://formadevida.org/edengfdv25
The special issue includes papers by Manuela Teles, Fernanda Henriques, pê feijó, Jasmin Trächtler, Maria Luísa Ribeiro Ferreira, Luísa Afonso Soares, Sandra Laugier, Lisa McKeown, Maria Filomena Molder, Teresa Cunha, Tatiana Salem Levy, Isabel Castro Silva, Tracy Llanera, and Ana de Miguel...as well as interviews with Kristie Dotson, Alice Crary, and Amia Srinivasan.
The book chapter of mine on which the presentation was based is available to download for free here - https://ubibliorum.ubi.pt/handle/10400.6/12231
The webpage for the workshop can be found here: https://cosmopolites.wixsite.com/balibar
Etienne Balibar’s paper can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ejop.12512
My response to Etienne Balibar’s paper was recorded and the video is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb3vT6kD7BA&t=619s
I presented a revised version of this at the third international conference of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Filosofia, September 7th, 2018.
In 2021 I also gave a seminar on hinge epistemology and religious belief for the same course.