(Sarah Davis) Family Resemblance: On Knowing and Not Knowing

OPENING DEAN'S LECTURE

What do a Greek tragedy and a 20th-century work of philosophy
have in common? At first glance, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations seem worlds apart. However,
this lecture suggests that these authors are wrestling with a
similar problem, though from different angles—one we might
characterize as tragic, the other, comic. Both texts ultimately call for
a reorientation toward the pursuit of knowledge, challenging us to re-
consider what it truly means to know anything, especially ourselves.

Images: “The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods,” Bénigne Gagneraux, 1784
Portrait of the philosopher Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889-1951) by Moritz Nähr, 1930.

Abbott & Costello "Who's on First?"