Description
Book SynopsisThis is a lucid and highly readable account of Wittgensteins philosophy, set against the background of his extraordinary life and character. Woven together with a biographical narrative, this book is ideal for students seeking a clear and concise introduction to the work of this seminal 20th century philosopher.
Trade Review"This is an excellent new introduction to Wittgenstein. It is 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."
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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
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
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.
