Adrian Brockless

Abstract: In recent years, the world has witnessed an increase in political and religious unrest, both in totalitarian and democratic regimes. By drawing on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Peter Winch, Raimond Gaita and Severin Schroeder, this paper argues that attempts to understand the causes of such unrest should focus on outside factors that can be hypothesized as the external causes of such behaviour, as opposed to the reasons individuals offer for their actions. Within

Reasons, Causes and Political Unrest “Might it not even be imagined that several people had carried out an intention without any one of them having it? In this way a government may have an intention that no man has.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein. Zettel: 48) ------------------- In the last few years, the world has experienced an upsurge in political unrest. This has been particularly noticeable in the Middle East and West; totalitarian regimes of various kinds (Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq,