Georg Henrik von Wright

Agora

Georg Henrik von Wright

1916–2003

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Norms of obligation and permission have a logic of their own, parallel to the logic of necessity and possibility; and human actions are understood rather than causally explained – through the practical syllogism, which links what agents intend and believe to what they do.

Placement

Analytic Philosophy · Northern Europe · Logic, Ethics, Science

Finnish philosopher, Wittgenstein’s successor at Cambridge and one of his literary executors: he founded modern deontic logic, the logic of obligation and permission, and argued that actions are understood through intentions and practical reasoning rather than explained by causal laws.

Key ideas

Deontic logic
Explanation and understanding
The practical syllogism
Editing Wittgenstein’s papers

Teachers: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Eino Kaila

Students: Jaakko Hintikka

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Influence

Influenced by 3

Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with

studied with ✓
Von Wright met Wittgenstein in Cambridge in 1939 and attended his lectures; in 1948 he succeeded him in the Cambridge chair and later became one of his literary executors. G. H. von Wright, “Intellectual Autobiography”, in P. A. Schilpp & L. E. Hahn (eds.), The Philosophy of Georg Henrik von Wright (1989)
Evidence: AI draft
Ludwig Wittgenstein › 1889–1951
Eino Kaila studied with

studied with ✓
Von Wright studied with Kaila in Helsinki, who introduced him to logical empiricism, and took his doctorate there in 1941 with The Logical Problem of Induction. G. H. von Wright, “Intellectual Autobiography”, in P. A. Schilpp & L. E. Hahn (eds.), The Philosophy of Georg Henrik von Wright (1989)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Eino Kaila › 1890–1958
G. E. M. Anscombe

influenced by
Von Wright developed Anscombe’s practical syllogism from Intention (1957) into a teleological model of understanding action, set against causal explanation (Explanation and Understanding, 1971). G. H. von Wright, Explanation and Understanding (1971); G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention (1957)
Evidence: AI draft
G. E. M. Anscombe › 1919–2001

Influenced 2

Paul Ricœur

influenced
Ricœur took from von Wright’s Explanation and Understanding (1971) the model of intervention, which joins causal and teleological explanation, for historical explanation (Time and Narrative I, 1983). P. Ricœur, Temps et récit I (1983); Du texte à l’action (1986); G. H. von Wright, Explanation and Understanding (1971)
Evidence: AI draft
Paul Ricœur › 1913–2005
Jaakko Hintikka taught

taught ✓
Hintikka studied with von Wright in Helsinki and took his doctorate under him in 1953 with a dissertation on distributive normal forms in the predicate calculus. J. Hintikka, “Intellectual Autobiography”, in R. E. Auxier & L. E. Hahn (eds.), The Philosophy of Jaakko Hintikka (2006)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO
Jaakko Hintikka › 1929–2015

Works

1951Deontic Logic
Article in Mind that treats obligation, permission and prohibition as logical operators analogous to necessity and possibility and sets out laws connecting them – the starting point of deontic logic as a discipline.
1971Explanation and Understanding
Compares the “Galilean” tradition of causal explanation with the “Aristotelian” tradition of teleological understanding and argues that actions are understood through the practical syllogism – an agent’s intention and beliefs – which is not a causal law.

Position

Von Wright is on the map as a founder of modern philosophical logic and a bridge between analytic philosophy and the hermeneutic tradition. In “Deontic Logic” (1951) he showed that the concepts of obligation, permission and prohibition behave like the modal concepts of necessity and possibility and can be treated in a formal system; the paper launched modern deontic logic as a field (an earlier attempt was Ernst Mally’s “Grundgesetze des Sollens”, 1926, from Meinong’s school in Graz), and “Norm and Action” (1963) placed it within a general theory of norms. He also contributed to the logic of preference, of action and of time. In “Explanation and Understanding” (1971) he contrasted a “Galilean” tradition of causal explanation with an “Aristotelian” tradition of teleological understanding and argued, building on Anscombe’s “Intention”, that actions are understood through the practical syllogism: an agent intends an end and believes that a certain action is needed for it, and so sets about doing it – a connection that is logical, not causal. The book was widely discussed by hermeneutic philosophers, among them Paul Ricoeur, and helped to bring the two traditions into conversation. As an editor of Wittgenstein’s papers he shaped how Wittgenstein’s later work became known. His student Jaakko Hintikka continued the Finnish tradition in logic.

Life & context

Georg Henrik von Wright was born on 14 June 1916 in Helsinki into a Swedish-speaking family. He studied philosophy with Eino Kaila and in 1939 went to Cambridge, where he attended Wittgenstein’s lectures and came to know G. E. Moore and C. D. Broad. His doctoral thesis, “The Logical Problem of Induction”, appeared in 1941. He became professor in Helsinki in 1946 and in 1948 succeeded Wittgenstein as professor of philosophy at Cambridge, returning to Finland in 1951. With Elizabeth Anscombe and Rush Rhees he was one of Wittgenstein’s literary executors and edited many of his posthumous writings. From 1961 he was a member of the Academy of Finland, and from 1965 to 1977 he also held a visiting professorship at Cornell University. In Finland and Sweden he was a prominent public intellectual and a critic of the belief in technological progress. He died in Helsinki on 16 June 2003.