The Cake and the Raisins. On Wittgenstein, Style, and Philosophy

This paper explores the relationship between style and philosophy in three stages. First, it outlines this relationship with reference to both the philosophical tradition (Plato) and selected contemporary approaches (Heidegger and analytic philosophy). Second, it examines passages from the correspondence between Wittgenstein and Frege in which Frege sharply distinguishes – against Wittgenstein – between artistic and philosophical works. Finally, it analyses some of Wittgenstein’s remarks on style, arguing that style is closely linked to his conception of philosophy as primarily an activity of clarification, and that the relationship between style and clarification is not external (empirical) but internal (conceptual).