Kripkenstein

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In analytic philosophy, 'Kripkenstein' is a jesting nickname for Saul Kripke's reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later work, as presented in Kripke's book Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. The name is a portmanteau of the names 'Kripke' and 'Wittgenstein', chosen for its resemblance to that of 'Frankenstein' (the name of a fictional scientist who created a new person by stitching together body parts from other people). Use of the name 'Kripkenstein' is common to express the widely held view that Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein is perhaps rather distant from Wittgenstein's actual views. Kripke acknowledges as much in the text, saying that the views presented are not necessarily either Kripke's nor Wittgenstein's, but rather those of Wittgenstein-as-he-struck-Kripke. Accordingly, many philosophers recognize that the view presented in Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language is philosophically important, though something of a hybrid position--as if it were a fictional thinker of Kripke's own creation--, and so it is useful to have a name by which to call it. The thinker meant to hold the view is also sometimes called 'Kripke's Wittgenstein', or simply 'KW'.

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