Wittgenstein
Key Contemporary Thinkers
1. Auflage Februar 2006
288 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
This book offers a lucid and highly readable account of
Wittgenstein's philosophy, framed against the background of his
extraordinary life and character. Woven together with a
biographical narrative, the chapters explain the key ideas of
Wittgenstein's work, from his first book, the Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus, to his mature masterpiece, the
Philosophical Investigations.
Severin Schroeder shows that at the core of Wittgenstein's later
work lies a startlingly original and subversive conception of the
nature of philosophy. In accordance with this conception,
Wittgenstein offers no new philosophical doctrines to replace his
earlier ones, but seeks to demonstrate how all philosophical
theorizing is the result of conceptual misunderstanding. He first
diagnoses such misunderstanding at the core of his own earlier
philosophy of language and then subjects philosophical views and
problems about various mental phenomena understanding, sensations,
the will to a similar therapeutic analysis. Schroeder provides a
clear and careful account of the main arguments offered by
Wittgenstein. He concludes by considering some critical responses
to Wittgenstein's work, assessing its legacy for contemporary
philosophy.
Wittgenstein is ideal for students seeking a clear and concise
introduction to the work of this seminal twentieth-century
philosopher.
Abbreviations..
Chapter 1: Between Vienna and Cambridge.
1.1 The Wittgensteins.
1.2 Vienna.
1.3 Moral Solipsism.
1.4 Aviator or Philosopher.
1.5 Logic.
1.6 Norway and the War..
Chapter 2: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
2.0 Logic and Sins.
2.1 Foundations: Referentialism, Analysis, Determinacy &
Bi-polarity.
2.2 Logical Atomism.
2.3 Pictures: Language & Thought.
2.4 Logic.
2.5 Whereof One Cannot Speak.
(a) Sense, logical syntax, internal properties and formal
concepts.
(b) The logical form of reality.
(c) Solipsism.
(d) Ethics.
(e) The Tractatus Paradox..
Chapter 3: Schoolmaster, Architect and Professor of
Philosophy..
Chapter 4: Philosophical Investigations.
4.0 Only an Album.
4.1 The Dissolution of Logical Atomism.
(a) Referentialism.
(b) Determinacy of sense.
(c) Logical analysis.
(d) Bi-polarity.
(e) Essentialism.
(f) Meaning through meaning.
4.2 The Nature of Philosophy.
4.3 Meaning and Use.
4.4 The Philosophical Problem about Mental Processes and
States.
4.5 Understanding and Meaning An instructive
misinterpretation.
4.6 The Inner-Object Conception of Sensations.
(a) The Ascribability Argument.
(b) The Idle-Wheel Argument.
(c) Knowledge of other minds.
(d) The No-Criterion Argument.
(e) An understandable use.
(f) The grammar of a sensation word.
4.7 Actions and Reasons.
(a) Voluntary action.
(b) Acting for reasons..
Chapter 5: The final years.
Chapter 6: After Wittgenstein.
6.1 Oxford Philosophy & American Philosophy.
6.2 Challenges to Wittgenstein's Philosophy.
(a) Attacks on the distinction between conceptual and empirical
statements.
(b) Attacks on the common-sense view of linguistic meaning.
(c) Putnam's criticism of 'logical behaviourism'.
Further Reading.
Bibliography.
highly recommendable for graduate students and advanced
undergraduates. It is also highly recommendable for professional
philosophers, since Schroeder is likely to challenge one's current
conception of Wittgenstein."
--Brian Armstrong, Grazer Philosophische
Studien
"This book is a truly impressive achievement ... What is
particularly striking is the combination of three elements that
have rarely if ever been combined in such a forceful way: a
well-informed and succinct presentation of the biographical and
cultural context of Wittgenstein's work, an exposition of his
central texts which combines lucid introduction with novel
scholarship, and a dialectically astute discussion of the
substantive philosophical issues."
--Hans-Johann Glock, University of Zurich
"Dr Schroeder has written an excellent introduction to
Wittgenstein's philosophy. He surveys the Tractatus and the
Investigations with exemplary clarity and sweeps away recent
misinterpretations with decisive arguments. His careful and
methodical elucidations of the major themes in Wittgenstein's work
will greatly benefit students."
--Peter Hacker, St John's College, Oxford
