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Subjectivity after Wittgenstein : Wittgenstein’s embodied and embedded subject and the debate about the death of man Bax, C.
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA): Bax, C. (2009). Subjectivity after Wittgenstein : Wittgenstein’s embodied and embedded subject and the debate about the death of man. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language and Computation.
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Download date: 19 Apr 2019
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Acknowledgements
The person I without a doubt owe most to when it comes to this dissertation is my promotor Martin Stokhof. As his other students will without exception affirm, Martin not only regularly takes the time to thoroughly comment on papers, chapters or at least attempts thereto, but also has the unsurpassed ability to help one write what one wants to write in the best possible way, all the while keeping his own thoughts on the topic at hand largely to himself. Unfortunately, it seems that supervision Stokhof-style is the exception rather than the rule, and I feel privileged to have been able to write a thesis under such good guidance. It is safe to say that without Martin’s help, this book would not have been as good as it is today, or would at any rate have been of a much lesser quality. But there are also others who helped me with my writings on Wittgenstein and subjectivity or with other aspects of academic life, commenting on draft chapters or writing letters of recommendation, for instance. I will simply list these persons in alphabetical order, hoping that this suffices to thank them for the different things they did for me, and hoping that I am not overlooking anyone who deserves to be mentioned: Mark Addis, Boudewijn de Bruin, Alice Crary, Simon Critchley, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Michel ter Hark, Daniel Hutto, Michiel van Lambalgen, Stephen Mulhall, Gijs van Oenen, Søren Overgaard, Pieter Pekelharing, Josef Rothaupt, Ruth Sonderegger, Rudi te Velde and Hent de Vries. Part of this research was conducted at the Center for Subjectivity Research in Copenhagen, and I also want to express my gratitude for having had the chance to be part of such a stimulating research group, with weekly staff seminars that were inspiring every single time and a steady stream of interesting guest speakers to top it all off. “Tak” to Dan Zahavi and Arne Grøn for having me over and for giving me feedback on my work, and “tak” to those who also made my stay in Copenhagen memorable in not strictly work-related terms, like Rasmus Thybo Jensen, Lisa Käll, Joona Taipale, Claudia Welz, and Frederik Rosén too. My CFS visit was partly funded by NWO and Jo Kolk Studiefonds, for which I am very grateful as well.
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The majority of my research was however carried out at the University of Amsterdam, and I want to thank the ILLC for providing, if not in all respects the most likely, then still an incredibly supportive environment for writing a thesis on Wittgenstein and subjectivity. I also very much enjoyed being a member of the UvA Philosophy Department, at which I have always felt at home. I was involved in several parts of the Department’s teaching program during my PhD, which I have found to be a worthwhile addition to (and at times welcome distraction from) my writing activities. Thanks to Jeroen Groenendijk, Paul Dekker and Elsbeth Brouwer for pleasant and instructive collaboration, and to my students for always making teaching an invigorating thing to do. Special thanks go out to those with whom I shared the office over the years and could discuss whatever academic or non-academic matter was on my mind on a given day: Pim Klaassen, Edgar Andrade, Marc Staudacher and Erik Rietveld. Especially Erik, with whom I shared room 208 for the longest period of time and who was always in the middle of the phase I was just about to enter, has been of great support. But I have met lots of other people while working on my PhD, both in- out outside the University of Amsterdam, who I have come to consider firstrate colleagues or even great friends. I am not even going to try to list them all and will here mention just two: Marian Counihan, who was so kind to proofread part of this dissertation, and Kim van Gennip, with whom I have had many conversations about Wittgenstein as well as other things. Let me also use this opportunity to thank the journals and editors who were willing to publish some of the papers I wrote as preliminary studies to (parts of) this dissertation. A version of what is now chapter 2 for instance appeared in a collection published by the Free University of Amsterdam, and chapter 5 is informed by ideas I developed in a paper published in Telos. On a more personal note, writing a dissertation was much helped by having a great group of friends with the ability to relativize my academic struggles (not seldom by full out ridiculing them). My two paranimfen deserve special mention: Dorien Buddeke, with whom I could have lots of koffiekamer chats because she also found employment at the Philosophy Department, and Thessa Syderius, who even accompanied me on some of my trips abroad (though only to conferences in places like New York, never to those in the Austrian mountains). Things would moreover have been very different if it were not for my parents, who support me regardless of the choices I make, and my brother, who is not just a sibling but also a friend. My sincerest thanks go out to them. But it is only appropriate that I save my closing words of gratitude for Peter van Rijn, who came into my life with extraordinary timing. Thank you for already making the final stages of working on my doctorate into the beginning of something new and even better. Chantal Bax
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