Product Description
Published in 1953, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations had a deeply unsettling effect upon our most basic philosophical ideas concerning thought, sensation, and language. Its claim that philosophical questions of meaning necessitate a close analysis of the way we use language continues to influence Anglo-American philosophy today. However, its compressed and dialogic prose is not always easy to follow. This collection of essays deepens but also challenges our understanding of the work's major themes, such as the connection between meaning and use, the nature of concepts, thought and intentionality, and language games. Bringing together leading philosophers and Wittgenstein scholars, it offers a genuinely critical approach, developing new perspectives and demonstrating Wittgenstein's relevance for contemporary philosophy. This volume will appeal to readers interested in the later Wittgenstein, in addition to those interested in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. ... Read more

Product Description
Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century, but he is also one of the least accessible. This volume provides a comprehensible guide to his work by a wide range of experts who are actively engaged in new work on Wittgenstein. The essays, which are both expository and original, address central themes in his philosophy of mind, language, logic, and mathematics and clarify the connections among the different stages in the development of his work.Amazon.com Review
Visiting his student Ludwig Wittgenstein one night only tofind him in the throes of despair, Bertrand Russell facetiously askedwhether it was logic or his sins that was troubling him. "Both,"Wittgenstein gravely replied. Is it any wonder that Wittgenstein theman, as well as his elusive but profound philosophical work, continueto fascinate? "Any attempt at a definitive exposition of his ideaswould be doomed to failure," according to editor Hans Sluga;therefore, the Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein is intendedmainly "to alert readers to some of the most important and mostinteresting issues raised in Wittgenstein's philosophical writings."For the most part, the 14 essays succeed.

With the exception of Thomas Ricketts's discussion of the TractatusLogico-Philosophicus, the focus of the essays is on Wittgenstein'slater work, particularly the Philosophical Investigations. Hisconception of philosophy is approached from various angles by RobertJ. Fogelin, Newton Garver, and Stanley Cavell. The format of Cavell'sessay--which consists of his lecture notes from the 1960s and 1970sinterspersed with afterthoughts from the 1990s--is somewhatirritating, but the depth of his insight makes up for it. Other essaysdeal with Wittgenstein's ideas about the philosophy of mathematics,ethics, necessity and normativity, the self, andepistemology. Especially worthy of attention is Donna M. Summerfield's"Fitting and Tracking: Wittgenstein on Representation." In explainingthe development of Wittgenstein's thought about representation,Summerfield also manages to sketch the philosophical problem ofrepresentation in careful and perspicacious detail. All in all, TheCambridge Companion to Wittgenstein is recommended to anyonegrappling with its enigmatic subject. --Glenn Branch ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential Wittgenstein
As an introduction to making sense of Wittgenstein's work (and his contribution to 20th C. Philosophy), or as a scholarly apparatus, this is a superb collection of articles.It places the reader square in the middle of current discussion in Wittgenstein studies, and this anthology is a good entry into the threshold of that research.With this, you enter into a world of pain [I just had to say that.Somehow it is appropriate to juxtapose W. with quotes from the The Big Lebowski (a film)].

Wittgenstein is a difficult and at times obscure philosopher.However, this anthology and Crary's New W. (Routledge) makes the best case for W's relevance to the philosophy of math and the philosophy of mind.

Some of the more important articles included here are: Stern, "Availability of W's Philosophy," Cavell, "Notes and Afterthoughts," Stroud, "Mind, Meaning and Practice" (excellent), Sluga (on W's subjectivism), Fogelin, Ricketts on W's Tractatus, and the following figures on math and math necessity: Diamond, Gerrard, and Glock.

I highly recommend this anthology.I also recommend: Crary's New W; W. in America; McDowell's articles on rule-following; Stroud, Mind Meaning and Practice (Oxford UP); Dummett, Putnam, and Diamond's Realistic Spirit.Also see David Stern's book on W, as well as Diamond's Realistic Spirit.

A Window on Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein is considered among the most important philosophers of the 20th century, he is certainly among the most difficult.But he is also among the most worthwhile.He was concerned, among other matter, with the relationship of language to the world, of the ontological status of mind and consciousness, and of showing how language itself helped create false philosophical problems."When language takes a holiday," as Wittgenstein puts it, we can create all sorts of philosophical problems - the mind-body problem may be one of these if Wittgenstein is correct.

There are a number of good essays in this collection, but Hans Sulga's "Whose House is That?: Wittgenstein on the Self" may be the best.Sulga explores how Wittgenstein's analysis of language led him to a rejection of Cartesian substantialism - or the idea that consciousness, the soul, or the mind, was an immaterial substance - a "soul atamon" as Nietzsche would put it - tethered to a physical body and capable of existing independently of that body.But Wittgenstein also rejected opposing views such as materialism, behaviorism, and reductionism as well.Indeed, he shows how such opposing camps actually share some of the same underlying assumptions.All this leads Wittgenstein to a radical and important new way of understanding subjectivity.For those interested in an accessible introduction to Wittgenstein's thinking on these matters this volume is a good place to start - particularly Sulga's essay. ... Read more

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Cora Diamond has played a leading role in the reception and elaboration of Wittgenstein's philosophy. Diamond's contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship is distinguished by her striking and widely discussed suggestions about continuity between Wittgenstein's early and later writings. Her work in ethics, in important respects shaped by her study of Wittgenstein, has been similarly influential. The essays in this volume, by a number of distinguished philosophers, including Stanley Cavell, James Conant, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam, and Martha Nussbaum, explore groundbreaking interpretations of Wittgenstein’s philosophy and attempt to demonstrate its significance for ethics, using Diamond's writings on these topics as a springboard and inspiration.

The book begins with essays that address Diamond's work on Wittgenstein, defending and further developing her work both on the Tractatus and on Wittgenstein's later thought. Additional essays take up Diamond's writings on moral philosophy, examining her concept of "the difficulty of reality," her view that literature as such presents us with rational moral instruction, and her work on animals and ethics.

Contributors:
Stanley Cavell, James Conant, Alice Crary, David Finkelstein, Juliet Floyd, Michael Kremer, Sabrina Lovibond, John McDowell, Stephen Mulhall, Martha Nussbaum, and Hilary Putnam ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Extremely Careful Review of Wittgenstein's Investigations
Originally published along with "An Analytical Commentary on Wittgentsein" as "Wittgenstein:Understanding and Meaning" (note the flipped title words), this book is a must-read for those intrigued by Wittgenstein's thought but not needing all the exegesis of the original volume. For scholars and serious students of philosophy only. ... Read more

Product Description
Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations presents his own distillation of two decades of intense work on the philosophies of mind, language and meaning. When first published in 1953, it immediately entered the center of philosophical debate, and achieved a classic status it has retained ever since. This revised German-English edition is published on the fiftieth anniversary of Wittgenstein's death. It incorporates final revisions by G. E. M. Anscombe (1919 - 2001) to her original English translation. No distribution rights for this book is available outside the USA and North America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Stop Carping
While this edition does not solve all problems, no edition could. It is a beautiful piece of work. This is one of the great philosophical books of all time having changed philosophy and culture as well. The book was intended to put an end to academic philosophy which is one reason that it has divided academicians into two camps - religious followers and those who despise the book. But you have to read it for yourself to be even within the domain of literate. It is a well written collection of sometimes aphoristic remarks, many of which have crept into literature and even scientific thought. Brilliantly original, highly readable and certain to change the way you think.Philosophical Investigations: The German Text, with a Revised English Translation 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition

A sea change in philosophy
Wittgenstein's importance to philosophy has, paradoxically, been overstated and understated at the same time.
It is overstated when individuals attach themselves to particular arguments and use them to justify dubious claims - and, I might add, this is what happens more often than not.Half understood, some of these arguments seem to carry a weight that they do not have, and muddy things up more than they help.
But understood in its entirety, W.'s philosophy is the most powerful and innovative (and I would say, correct) philosophy in recent times.

The key text.
Thisd just is the key text of 20th century philosophy. Written in aphoristic style and heavily reactive to the conversation between Frege Russell and the early Wittgenstein that gave birth to contemporary analytic philosophy it is a must read (in company with some of the texts from those three authors). Nobody should remain unchanged in their thinking by reading and striving to understand this work.

3 stars only for 50th Anniversary edition
Just a few comments on this 50th anniversary--supposedly FINAL--edition of the translation:
1) After 50 years Anscombe STILL did not fix the snafu in section 412 where she forgot to translate a parenthetical.She was informed of this in the 1950's!
2) To change the translation of "Lebensform" from "form of life" to "life-form" after all these years is unnecessary and stupid.It rings too much of biology and Star Trek.
3) To change the pagination, by which all references to Part II and inserts to Part I have been made for 50 years, is an unnecessary bother.
4) The translation has NEWLY-INTRODUCED typos in sections 38, 41, 47, and then I stopped counting.How is this an improvement?
Please bring the older editions back in print!

Nice Version of a Contemporary Classic
Originally published in 1953 the `Philosophical Investigations' was the latter of Wittgenstein's two influential philosophical texts (the Tractatus being the offer).This Fiftieth Anniversary edition provides the original German text and Anscombe's English translation on opposing pages.

The Investigations is widely considered to be one of the most influential philosophical texts of the last century.Although it touches on a range of issues including logic and philosophy of the mind it is largely focused on issues pertaining to the philosophy of language.That said, I share the view that Wittgenstein is difficult to categorize - in many ways he stands outside the mainstream of philosophy.

I have occasionally heard it said that Wittgenstein is appealing and accessible to non-philosophers.Undoubtedly this will vary from reader to reader, however, I think a good understanding of the philosophical questions of the time is essential to getting the most out of Wittgenstein - he spends little time framing the issues under discussion and without this background many of his musings may seem meaningless.

From a historic perspective this is one of the most important works in twentieth century philosophy, on a more basic level it is a choppy and poorly constructed work.I struggle with Wittgenstein, sometimes viewing him as trivial other times as profound.Clearly, many great thinkers are in the latter camp, as are ironically many neophytes who want to appear as if they understand Wittgenstein.

Overall, this is an excellent edition of a modern day classic - an essential addition to any serous student's library.I would not, however, recommend this as an entry point to the world of philosophy.

... Read more

Product Description
This collection contains hitherto unknown letters exchanged between Wittgenstein and the most important of his Cambridge friends and includes editorial notes based on archival material not previously explored.

• Incorporates many previously undiscovered unique and significant letters.
  
• A powerful record and intimate insight into Wittgenstein's life and thought.
  
• Extensive editorial annotations.

Product Description
This third volume of the monumental commentary on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations covers sections 243-427, which constitute the heart of the book.Like the previous volumes, it consists of philosophical essays and exegesis. The thirteen essays cover all the major themes of this part of Wittgenstein's masterpiece: the private language arguments, privacy, avowals and descriptions, private ostensive definition, criteria, minds and machines, behavior and behaviorism, the self, the inner and the outer, thinking, consciousness, and the imagination. The exegesis clarifies and evaluates Wittgenstein's arguments, drawing extensively on all the unpublished papers, examining the evolution of his ideas in manuscript sources and definitively settling many controversies about the interpretation of the published text.This commentary, like its predecessors, is indispensable for the study of Wittgenstein and is essential reading for students of the philosophy of mind.A fourth and final volume, entitled Wittgenstein: Mind and Will will complete the commentary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

insight and no illusion!
Denise la Sala, Dr Hacker will have your guts for a necktie! This is an important work which exposes the many underlying confusions of contemporary philosophy of mind. Our willingness to cleave to a picture of language which wrongly sees all sentences as descriptions leads to profound misunderstandings, which are uncovered here with devastating clarity. A must for anyone who wishes to be shown the way out of the fly bottle!

A work that will no doubt please the self-important...
... Wittgenstein intelligentsia. The author is so arrogant and pretentious that in one section he proposes to overthrow the empirical discipline of cognitive science by examining the English grammar of the word "mind". If the brain is truly not the organ of thinking, as you claim, Mr. Hacker; then I suppose it shall come as no insult to you that I believe *your* mental processes would suffer no loss even if said organ were removed from your skull. This book is trash and should not be read by anyone. ... Read more

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"Austrian philosopher LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889¿1951) was hugely influential on 20th-century philosophy, and here, he constructs a series of carefully and precisely numbered propositions on the relationship between language, logic, and reality, using a numbering system to show nested relationships between the propositions. Considered one of the major recent works of philosophy¿a reputation enhanced, undoubtedly, by Bertrand Russell¿s glowing introduction¿this edition is a reproduction of the translation by C.K. Ogden, first published in 1922, for which Wittgenstein himself assisted in the preparation of the English-language manuscript. Students of philosophy and those fascinated by the history of ideas will want a copy of this essential volume." ... Read more

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The life and culture of Hapsburg, Vienna before World War I--the city of Freud, Schoenberg, Klimt, and Wittgenstein, whose philosophy announced the birth of the modern era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The Birth of the Modern
Wittgenstein's Vienna
Wittgenstein's Vienna

Ludwig Wittgenstein was the youngest of eight children born toAustrian steel tycoon Karl Wittgenstein.At the family'ssumptuous estate, major figures of European cultural life frequently appeared and performed... among them Mahler and Brahms. The entire brilliant but dysfunctional family was musically and intellectually gifted.Paul Wittgenstein was a world-renowned classical pianist despite the loss of one arm.Two of his brothers committed suicide within a few years of each other, and a third killed himself during World War I.Karl Wittgenstein was the undisputed master of his universe, tolerating no deviation from his standards by his children.

A mathematical and musical prodigy largely tutored at home, Wittgenstein distinguished himself in philosophy at Cambridge and became a protégé of Bertrand Russell. His most influential philosophical treatise, TractatusLogico- Philosophicus, was not published until after his death.
Wittgenstein's Vienna was an astonishing confluence of creativity.
Psychiatrists argued with conventional medical practitioners; poets talked with painters; philosophers argued with theologians.
The Vienna of Wittgenstein's time was a city of paradoxes.Described by some as a second-rate power, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was characterized by extremely bourgeois values, excessively ornamental art,
and mindless obedience to order and discipline.In their excellent overview of Hapsburg Vienna, "Wittgenstein's Vienna,"Alan Janik and Stephen Toulminwrite: "As the Good Old Days drew to a close, Vienna was above all a city of the bourgeoisie. Most of the leading figures in all fields came from a bourgeoise background.Though Vienna had been a commercial center from time immemorial and had been the center of large=scale public administration since the reign of Maria Theresa, the Viennese bourgeoisie acquired its individual character during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. ... if any single factor can be singled out to account for the special character of Vienna's bourgeois society... it is the failure of liberalism in the political sphere."

Against this background came a group of intellectuals and artists dedicated to reforming the antiquated society.Led by Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos, the composer Arnold Schonberg, and Gustav Klimpt. They organized a withdrawal from the Royal Academy, calling it "The Secession" and built a monument to it , "The Secession House."
The motto of the movement was "Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit" ("To the era its proper art, and to art its proper function.""
This is brilliant social and cultural history, well worth the reading.

See Also:
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889
Thunder At Twilight, Vienna 1913/1914
The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

Kulturgeschichte of a remarkable cultural and intellectual watershed
This is a dazzlingly dense intellectual history of a time when there was an explosion of new ideas in both the arts and sciences.The place was Vienna, at the end of the Habsburg monarchy, where not only Sigmund Freud (psychlology) but also Loos (design), Schoenberg (music), Kochoscka (painting), and many others were establishing what we now call "modernism." It is also a philosophical tract of great depth, focusing on Wittgenstein.What is so remarkable is how commonplace their ideas and techniques have become in our everyday vocabulary - think "unconscious", but also "form follows function" - and how they all originated there, at the end of the 19C.

According to the authors, the starting point of the modernist movement is to be found in the deterioration of the Habsburg monarchy, spread as it was across a vast central european empire with dozens of languages and ethnic groups.To keep it all together in the face of rising nationalisms, the Habsburgs strove to maintain appearences of power and cohesion at all costs.This created a kind of living falsehood, in which issues were avoided by the use of code words and empty symbolic rituals.

Add to this the rise of new bourgeois fortunes, whereby a new middle classe arose based on industries.They too constructed their own private worlds within their homes, mimicing the Habsburgs and ignoring issues - in particular sexuality - to the point that it generated a latent hysteria in its women and anxiety in the working men, whose children despised them as fakes.Their houses were studded with overly ornate decorations, which were designed to ape the lifestyles of aristocrats, and they lived by elaborate codes of conduct and narrow career choices.

Obviously, this explains the biases in Freud's theories towards explaining too much by "suppressed impulses" buried in the unconscious (read hysterical women), but the authors argue that the great innovator of the age was Karl Krause, an independent satirist who called for honesty in language and the way one chose to live one's life.All of the others, they claim, were direct followers of Krause, from Klimt - he rebelled against the formalism of the royal academy of art with his Secessionist movement - to Wittgenstein and his study of language structure and meaning; even the great physicist Ernst Mach was apparently a follower of Krause, as was Canetti.They all knew eachother and were interested, and even participated, in eachothers' disciplines.This was a total surprise to me.

This is a fascinating intellectual tour (in the first 120 pages) that is evoked in dense prose that I had to read more than once to fully comprehend.I was particulary interested in their explanation of how Loos was attempting to strip away all ornament in an attempt to concentrate on the actual function of the buildings he designed as well as the household objects his followers created.This led directly to Bauhaus and all the other modernist schools of design, which exploited the new materials coming available, such as aluminum and tubular steel, to re-invent furniture, homes, and office spaces in ways that are still ripe for exploration today.I never understood the context in which this movement arose until I read this book.

The remaining 200 pages place Wittgenstein's philosphy in this context.To be honest, this interested me a lot less, but it is a must for students of modern philosophy. This is where the structure of language was explored, which led to the structuralists and to a degree the existentialists.It follows him to England, which comes in for heavy criticsm by the authors.In a way, this reads like a separate book.

Highly recommended.It is an intellectual adventure that is truly first rate.

An unforgettable book about an unforgettable time and place
As someone with a strong interest in modern philosophy as well as modern classical music, art and literature, I received more honest pleasure and enlightenment from reading this book than from any other book in recent memory. It is not per se a book about Wittgenstein, but rather an in-depth analysis of the milieu and mind-set of Vienna and its cultural elite circa 1900. Before immersing yourself into this delightful book, it might be a good idea to review the history of Austria-Hungary, how it came to be, the key events surrounding it, the emporer Franz Josef, and the territories which made up the dual monarchy. It also helps if you have some acquaintance with the German language, since German terms are used liberally throughout, often without denoting what those terms mean in English. Not being familiar with German, I found this mildly annoying, but certainly not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for this book.

Some of the most interesting sections of the book concern Viennese social philosophers and the artists whose works were a commentary on the corruption of the "gilded age": Otto Weininger, Kokoschka, Klimt, Schoenberg, Fritz Mauthner, and of course the unforgettable Karl Krauss. There is also a lengthy section on the scientific work of Mach and Hertz, the development of Hertz's "model" theory and its influence on Wittgenstein's Tractatus, as well as a beautifully written synopsis of Schopenhaur's philosophy.

And this is only the barest overview of a stupendously rich and rewarding book, one which all thoughtful people should and must read. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

THOUGHT AS AN HISTORICAL COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT
PHILOSOPHY...PHILO-SOPHIA...THE LOVE OF TRUTH IS MOST DIFFICULT WHERE THOUGHT IS CONCERNED.BUT WAIT A MINUTE, DO WE NOT USE THOUGHT TO EXPRESS WHAT WE FEEL TO BE TRUE..PROVIDE A REASON FOR FEELING SUCH?AHHHH.THE PROBLEM..'WE' USE 'THOUGHT'.IS THE 'WE' DIFFERENT THAN 'THOUGHT'..IS THERE A LITTLE MAN/WOMAN SOMEWHERE IN THE BRAIN USING THIS TOOL CALLED THOUGHT?QUESTION THE PROCESS!I FEEL THAT WITTGENSTEIN FOUND LANGUAGE, THOUGHT TOO LIMITED TO COME UPON TRUTH. VIENNA WAS A HOTBED OF IDEATION WITHIN WHICH A PERSON SUCH AS A 'WITTGENSTEIN' COULD SEE WHERE THOUGHT WAS AND WAS NOT VALID.A WONDERFUL BOOK

intellectual history??
okay i've been trained both in sociology and philosophy and would say the book brings the poorest of both worlds.. never believed in intellectual history in general, but this kind of book, with its judgements about Kierkeggardian or Wittgensteinian 'individualism' as a 'natural pathology' of early twentieth century continental bourgeoise society, does nothing but buttress the self-complacency of our now liberal societies. Therefore despite some 'interesting' anectodes and impressions from Habsburg Vienna, the philosophical depth of the book doesnt go above our usual journalistic wisdom. I dont understand how other reviewers found this book brilliant or anything like that. I think recommendable as passtime only. ... Read more

Product Description
This electronic version of Wittgenstein's Nachlass includes a complete facsimile and transcription (without translations) of the philosopher's writings as catalogued by von Wright in his 1982 publication The Wittgenstein Papers. This is the most accurate collection of the Nachlass transcriptions and the CD-ROM allows you to search for subjects of interest with speed and ease. ... Read more

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The New Wittgenstein offers a major reevaluation of Wittgenstein's thinking. This stellar collection of original essays by the "third wave" of Wittgenstein critics presents a significantly different portrait of the philosopher, not as a proponent of metaphysical theories but as an advocate of philosophy as therapy--a means of helping us grasp the essence of thought and language by attending to our everyday forms of expression. Boldly criticizing standard interpretations and offering unorthodox perspectives, these controversial essays will change the way we look at Wittgenstein's entire body of work.

Contributors: Stanley Cavell, David Cerbone, James Conant, Alice Crary, Cora Diamond, David Finkelstein, Juliette Floyd, P.M.S. Hacker, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam, Rupert Read, Martin Stone, Edward Witherspoon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mostly mediocre articles on our greatest psychologist
Ludwig Wittgenstein is the most famous philosopher of modern times but very few understand his pioneering work and there has been a collective amnesia regarding him in recent decades. Most of the essays are new but some date as far back as 1979 and whether they give a new view of his ideas depends on one's understanding of what he said.For me, the interpretations are not new and mostly just as confused as nearly all the other commentary on W and on human behavior throughout the behavioral sciences and by the general public. As usual, nobody seems to grasp that philosophy is armchair psychology, and that W was (in my view) the greatest natural psychologist of all time.He laid out the general structure of how the mind works, which is often referred to as intentionality and is roughly equivalent to cognition or personality or thinking and willing or higher order thought (HOT). He can thus be regarded as a pioneer in evolutionary psychology, although hardly anyone but me seems to realize it. W was thus nearly 50 years ahead of his time as the first to reject (though not entirely consistently) the blank slate or cultural view of human nature, though this has gone unrecognized and he has generally been interpreted as supporting a communal consensus view of psychology--exactly the opposite of his overall thrust (eg., see Short's comment on p 115).

As always in philosophical writing, it is quite striking that nobody (in my view) fully grasps what W was doing and noone to this day has succeeded (and few even try) to follow his Socratic method with constant recourse to perspicuous examples of our psychological functioning.

His wholly novel ideas and unique style and telegraphic writing, coupled with his often solitary, almost solipsistic lifestyle, and premature death in 1951, resulted in a failure to publish anything of his later thought during his lifetime and only slowly has his huge nachlass of some 20,000 pages been published- a project which continues to this day. The only complete edition of the largely German nachlass was first issued by Oxford in 2000 with Intelex now publishing it, as well as all the 14 Blackwell English language books on a searchable CD. The Blackwell CD costs ca. $100 but the Oxford CD is over $1000 or over $2000 for the set including the images of the original manuscripts. They can however be obtained via interlibrary loan and also, like countless other volumes in behavioral science, at even lower cost on p2p. One reason I mention this is that, though most of his best work has now been translated and published in English, it is useful and often indispensable to consider his German remarks in the nachlass and few scholars are up to it. Editing and translating of his work by his executors has also been less than perfect and capturing the precise meaning of the original German is a huge problem as several authors here note (eg, the need in many passages to translate "darstellung" as an action and not as a disposition (propositional attitude)--one of many distinctions W was the first to elucidate.One can get a graphic view of this by looking at Victor Rodych's two revelatory articles (the first without and the latter with the benefit of the nachlass) on W and Godel in the journal Minds and Machines. Interested readers may wish to consult my other reviews of W books and that of Hofstadter's "I Am A Strange Loop".

It is well known that W dramatically altered his views beginning in 1929 and by the mid 30's essentially totally rejected his prior work, including the famous Tractatus.However, the Tractatus continues to fascinate and several of the current authors (Diamond, Conant) follow a long tradition in trying to explain just what he meant and how this changed or did not in his later work.For me, the only value in this is to see how early in his life (ca 1914) he began to express the germs of his later understanding of human psychology.On this issue I think Hacker's final essay here is definitive. His affirmative answer to "Was he trying to whistle it?" indicates that W of the Tractatus was trying to describe what he so famously insisted could not be said but only shown.Hacker (along witheveryone else on the planet) does not seem to realize that this meant that W was trying to describe the functioning of the axioms of our innate evolutionary psychology by giving examples from our everyday use of language (ie, from our thought), but he does a beautiful job of refuting Diamond and Conant's views in their essays here, and many others elsewhere, and provides chapter and verse for this view.See eg, various comments on pg 360,363, 372, 373, 376-81 for W's clear references to our innate and unquestionable (ie denying our axioms lacks sense) intentionality. Hacker puts an end (one hopes) to the view that W was actually writing Kierkegaardian nonsense.

Crary's introductory essay is tolerable, but makes a grotesque understatement on p3 when she states that there is "something essentially unsatisfactory" about the view that W supported the idea that there is "no such thing as fully objective agreement."In fact such a view is utterly mistaken, as is amply demonstrable throughout his latter writings in which he shows that our normal behavior is the very definition of objective agreement and it's denial is incoherent (see eg. his last work "On Certainty").

Cavell was one of the first to begin to penetrate deeply into W and his typically brilliant essay (reprinted from 1979) almost gets to the core of the matter, but he tends to get rather more florid and poetic than I think useful, and just does not quite get that W was laying out the structure of our evolved EP.Of course he can be forgiven as nobody else does either.

McDowell's essay from 1981 is quite dated and severely hampered by his rather opaque style, but has some good points, in spite of the expected oblivion to W's defining the modern study of innate intentional psychology.

I find Finkelstein's article on W and Platonism to be excellent and agree that Kripke and Wright are wrong and McDowell and Tait are right about this. Though neither he nor anyone I have read sees it this way, it seems to me very useful to view Plato's Ideals as our cognitive modules programmed by our genes.No term will be perfect, but if we have to label W's views, then I agree with Finkelstein and McDowell that "naturalistic Platonist" get pretty close. Certainly he dealt the death blow to the idea that an interpretation is required to follow a rule.

Read's comments on word meanings seems unexceptionable but the writing is horrific (ie, more or less standard philosophy).

Stone on W on Deconstruction has its moments but for me Decon and Derrida are an utter waste of time and it is comical how he tends to lapse into the typical Decon word salad (I first typed "world salad", which seems apt as well) when he discusses Derrida.Again we find Kripke's bizarre skeptical interpretation of W discussed and rejected. In spite of occasional lapses, it is clear as crystal that W rejected the blank slate community consensus view in favor of his novel innate axiomatic description of our psychology. Meaning is normative because it's innate, automatic and invisible and not subject to interpretation--a word W reserves for "the substitution of one expression of the rule for another."(p100). Neither Kripke nor Derrida gets the point since (like nearly everyone) they are hopelessly ensnared in the blank slate defaults when trying to explain behavior.

Crary's essay on W and political thought is clever but standard blank slate again and so hopeless. Politics, like all of culture, is a slight extension of our evolutionary psychology which demonstrates the ineluctable dominance of nature over nurture and W's contribution was to point this out, though usually indirectly.

Putnam's "Rethinking Mathematical Necessity" shows that by 1994 he had begun to understand W, but even so it's a big advance over his earlier work.

Floyd on W and mathematical philosophy is pretty good stuff, but does not grasp the overall picture of W as an evolutionary psychologist and math as a slight extension of our intuitive psychology. There is no boundary between math and the rest of our intentionality and W interleaved math examples throughout his work.Many of his most incisive revelations on our psychological functions and the relation of language to the world he demonstrated with mathematics or geometry.Floyd gives a good discussion of W's example of trisecting the angle which requires that we carefully examine the operation of disposition words like think, doubt, imagine, believe, know, decide and realize they depict actions or potential for actions and not mental states, as W first pointed out in the 1930's. But in this case, as in all cases (ie, all of language and philosophy) this is only the beginning of what W shows us and we need to realize that "question", "answer", "mathematics", "proof", "equation", etc., the various uses of which comprise complex language games (concepts or cognitive modules or groups of them) which often have little or NOTHING in common except that they are all included in our psychology (our form of life as he liked to say,) but this all operates invisibly and automatically in our subterranean psychology and thus is overlooked by virtually everyone including, incredibly, nearly all philosophers (even specialists on W), as this book also sadly illustrates.To Floyd's great credit, she gets it mostly right and the book is worth buying just for her article! Those intrigued by mathematical avenues into intentional psychology, as well as a general view of W might find a few things of interest in my comments on W and Godel in the Hofstadter review.

Diamond wastes her article on W by spending most of it discussing such items of philosophical esoterica as what the Tractatus implied regarding Russell's work, which is probably one of the least interesting ways to investigate human behavior.

Cerbone likewise expends his energies mostly on the historical aspects of W's relation to Frege, though he does make some good points about the limits of sense along the way (eg, that the language games W proposed often would require a substantial remodeling of our psyche to work).Sadly and almost inevitably (ie, oblivion to how our mind works is another of the hundreds of universals of our EP) he seems to evince no real grasp that it was his insights into our evolutionary psychology that gave such power to W's work, that these innate axioms (or concepts or cognitive modules) provide our "conceptual skin"(p308), is not clear that T and F do not apply to logic and math in the same sense as to empirical facts and that they are extensions of limited parts of our psychology, and that if we have a reasonable test for "illogical" then this term definitely characterizes much of our behavior.But a reasonably stimulating read nonetheless.

Witherspoon's article on W and Carnap ( member of the Vienna circle and the only person W ever accused of plagiarism) leaves me cold, as he has no insight at all into the workings of the mind, although he uses (abuses) lots of the right words--"logical syntax", "linguistic framework," "grammar."Yes, he is certainly right that we often misunderstand W, but the really important point is that we ought to understand behavior. He justly gives attention to W's last work "On Certainty" which some regard as his best (though he was dying of prostate cancer at the time and was often barely able to work) and seems on the way to becoming (with TLP and PI) his most famous (eg, see the two recent books by Daniele Moyal-Sharrock).But, he wastes his time on vague theorizing about "quasiunderstanding" rather than explicating the depths of our intentional psychology, so beautifully laid out by W.

Those who wish to have a more conventional (but in my view typically confused-- in spite of some good points) review of this volume may consult Philosophical Investigations 24:2 p185-92(2001).

Exciting Philosophy
This is one of the more important recent books on Wittgenstein.I daresay that it is one of the most exciting and interesting texts since McDowell's Mind and World.

The most interesting and pertinent articles are by Cavell (who is often unclear but is otherwise here), McDowell (Non-Cognitivism and Rule-Following, which is also in his Mind, Value...anthology), Conant, Putnam (on mathematical necessity--so good--he's soon to have a new book released [UW lectures] by Columbia UP), J. Floyd (on math), and C. Diamond (esp. the article on the PL Arg. in the Tractatus).

This is a very exciting anthology.I highly recommend it.

I also recommend: Wittgenstein in America (Oxford UP) and Smith, Reading McDowell.

Proof that Wittgenstein's work has not yet been exhausted
Ms. Crary and Mr. Read have compiled texts from unorthodox philosophers young and old, who take Wittgenstein's statement '...Our investigation gains its importance from what it destroys' seriously, without giving way to uncompromising (& incomprehensible) forms of skepticism and relativism. However, that is not to say they do not take skepticism seriously or even believe that it must inevitably appear as an inherent part of philosophical discourse. Skepticism appears, rather, in almost all of these texts as both an impetus and impediment, in need of philosophical treatment. They see the need of destruction in light of the need of discourse, of creation, & if not in light of 'theory' (per se) in light of (textual) investigation. To this end, many of the essays re-examine the Tractatus in terms of W.'s later work, e.g. in the Investigations; they attempt to draw out certain similarities that have been covered up by the forthright assumption that the later work is only a critique of the earlier stuff.

Crary herself was a student of John McDowell at Pittsburgh, who is represented here with his beautiful treatment of non-cognitivism ('Non-cognitivism and rule-following'); followed by Cavell with a text on language learning; followed by Crary with a text on Political Philosophy, by Conant & Diamond with texts on the Tractatus and the Private-Language Argument respectively, etc. Finally, in the role of defendant is a text by P.M.S Hacker representing a more orthodox Wittgenstein - a Wittgenstein in an outright battle against the threat of Skepticism. -dg ... Read more

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clearly written but with little depth
This book moves along smoothly, clearly, logically--but it displays little of the philosophical strength of books on Wittgenstein by authors as diverse as Michael Hodges or, more recently, Jose Medina.The author is familiar with Wittgenstein's texts, but is not able to do anything philosophically original or important with them. ... Read more

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Wittgenstein made use of his insights into the nature and powers of language to search out the source of conceptual confusions in the foundations of mathematics and in the philosophy of psychology. Once he has established the use account of language, his Philosophical Investigations opens out into an extensive coverage of psychological phenomena and the concepts with which we identify and manage them. In this book Harre and Tissaw display Wittgenstein's analysis of the 'grammar' of the most important of these concepts in a systematic and accessible way. Previous studies of the psychological aspects of Wittgenstein's writings, admirable as exegeses of his thought, have paid little attention to the relevant psychology. Here, the 'adjacent' theories and empirical investigations from mainstream psychology have been described in sufficient detail to show how Wittgenstein's work impinges on psychology as it has actually been practised. In using this book, philosophers will be able to get a sense of the relevance of Wittgenstein's philosophical psychology to the development of psychology as a science.Psychologists will be able to see how to use Wittgenstein's insights to enrich and discipline their attempts to gain an understanding of human thinking, feeling, acting and perceiving, the domain of psychology as science. The book includes an historical overview of the sources of Wittgenstein's philosophy in the Vienna of the last years of Austro-Hungary, as well as a brief presentation of the main themes of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as it anticipated computational models of cognition. Student use is emphasized with frequent summaries and self-test questionnaires. ... Read more

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This first volume of Wittgenstein's "Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology" was written between October 1948 and March 1949, when the philosopher had moved to Dublin and was having one of his most fruitful working periods. He then finished work which he had begun in 1946 and which in its entirety constitutes the source material for Part II of the "Philosophical Investigations". When, later in 1949, Wittgenstein composed the manuscript for Part II he selected more than half the remarks for it from the Dublin manuscript. This material is a direct continuation of the writings which make up the two volumes of the "Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology". ... Read more

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Wittgenstein's House reads Wittgenstein's his two main philosophical texts, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations, in relation to an experience that intervened between them: his design and construction of the Stonborough-Wittgenstein house in Vienna. Arguing that the practice of architecture occupies not just a historical position between Wittgenstein's early and late philosophy, but a conceptual position as well, the book demonstrates that Wittgenstein's practice of architecture constitutes a fundamental component in the development of his philosophy of language from its early to late phases. The book advances the radical proposition that the field in which architecture and philosophy operate includes linguistic and spatial practices. It develops innovative forms of interdisciplinary analyses to demonstrate that the philosophical positions put forth by Wittgenstein's two main works are literally unthinkable outside of their respective conceptions of space: the view from above in the early work and the view from within constructed by the late work. To examine the manner in which Wittgenstein's practice of architecture insinuated itself into his philosophy, the author interweaves in-depth analyses of the spatial constructs underpinning the early and late philosophies with conceptual, formal and operative discussions of the design of the Stonborough-Wittgenstein house. Together these discussions reveal how Wittgenstein's practice of architecture engaged philosophical concepts, through which it influenced Wittgenstein's philosophy of language. At the heart of this approach is the finding that the philosophical concepts at the core of Wittgenstein's philosophy are indeed spatial ones, including his concerns with the limits of language, the boundary between showing and saying, the intricate textual numbering systems he devises, the relationship between the interiority of the subject and the publicness of language, and the formative principle of family resemblance. ... Read more

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This volume collects the most substantial correspondence and documents relating to Wittgenstein’s long association with Cambridge between the years 1911 and his death in 1951, including the letters he exchanged with his most illustrious Cambridge contemporaries Russell, Keynes, Moore, and Ramsey (and previously published as Cambridge Letters).

• Now expanded to include 200 previously unpublished letters and documents, including correspondence between Wittgenstein and the economist Piero Srafafa, and between Wittgenstein and his pupils
  
• Includes extensive editorial annotations
  
• Provides a fascinating and intimate insight into Wittgenstein’s life and thought