The influence of Stanley Cavell on Fergus Kerr\u27s Wittgensteinian theology

This thesis argues that Fergus Kerr reads Ludwig Wittgenstein through the lens of Stanley Cavell, and this influence has an impact on Kerr\u27s theology. Chapter two outlines Cavell\u27s account of the truth of skepticism. For Cavell, our language does not rest upon necessary criteria (in this regard, skepticism is true), but is made possible by our attunement to one another, via our shared forms of life. Recognition of the truth of skepticism arouses an anxiety about the certainty of our knowledge and language. The problem we encounter is the tendency, when faced with skepticism\u27s truth, to engage in philosophical deflections which guide us back into imagining our language and knowledge rest upon more than forms of life. Wittgenstein\u27s methods, on Cavell\u27s read, aim at the removal of these deflections, deflections which give rise to philosophical illusion. Thus, Wittgenstein\u27s philosophy is therapeutic -- it aims to remove philosophical illusions so that we can see the truth already there. Chapters three and four describe that therapy. Chapter three is an excursus on Cora Diamond\u27s account of Wittgenstein\u27s early philosophy in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Against P.M.S. Hacker, Diamond argues that Wittgenstein\u27s aim in the Tractatus is therapeutic. On Diamond\u27s read, Wittgenstein guides his reader into imagining his propositions are meaningful, only to realize eventually that the same propositions were nonsense and we were deeply attracted to imagine them otherwise. In this way, Wittgenstein performs a therapy on his reader. Cavell reads the Investigations in a correlative way in his essay The Availability of Wittgenstein\u27s Later Philosophy, which is the subject of chapter four. Chapter five considers four moments in Fergus Kerr\u27s oeuvre wherein he engages, explicitly, with Wittgenstein\u27s philosophy. It is shown that the Cavellian themes perdure throughout, although we can see development in Kerr\u27s engagement with them. Chapter six then attempts to demonstrate how this engagement with Cavell\u27s Wittgenstein extends into Kerr\u27s other writing. The key here is Kerr\u27s engagement with Rahner. In moving through three phases of Kerr\u27s work: early (1980s), middle (1990s), and later (2000s), the chapter shows the transition between the early and middle phases from what was an inchoate, and at times underdeveloped criticism of Rahner\u27s theology to an appreciation. Kerr\u27s engagement with Russell Reno\u27s The Ordinary Transformed was pivotal in this shift. However, the Cavellian themes are shown to persist in spite of Kerr\u27s change of sympathy with regard to Rahner. Finally, the thesis closes with a suggestion that the themes hover in the background of Kerr\u27s most recent publications, most notably in his engagement with twentieth-century Catholic theology. This provides a partial explanation for the narration Kerr gives in Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians