Wittgenstein as a philosopher of common sense and enlightenment

Abstract

According to a commonplace view about the later Wittgensteinʼs philosophical method, a truly critical stance in philosophy is incompatible with the respect for common sense that Wittgensteinʼs official metaphilosophy endorses. Against this idea, I will claim that these are compatible. Especially, I will argue that (i) the role of common sense in Wittgensteinʼs philosophy is no more than to offer models for clarifying various philosophical utterances, and (ii) Wittgensteinʼs philosophy is truly critical in that it examines our framework of thoughts including common sense, so that Wittgenstein can be properly called a philosopher of common sense and enlightenment.