Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, Part II: Exegesis §§243–247

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, consciounesss, 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 The exegesis clarifies and evaluates Wittgenstein′s arguments, drawing extensively on all the unpublished papers, examining the evolution of his ideas in manuscript sources and definitively settling many controversies about the interpretation of the published text.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.

Acknowledgements. Preface. Abbreviations. Analytical Commentary. Part I: The Private Language (SS 243–315): . Introduction. The Private Language Arguments. Privacy. Private Ostensive Definition. Men, Minds and Machines. Avowals and Descriptions. Behaviour and Behaviouralism. The Inner and the outer. Part II: Thought (SS 316–62): . Introduction. Thinking: methodological muddles and categorial confusions. Thinking: the soul of language. Part III: Imagination (SS 363–97): . Introduction. Images and Imagination. Part IV: The Self and Self–Reference (SS 398–411): . Introduction. I and my self. Part V: Consciousness (SS 411–27):. Introduction. The World of Consciousness. Criteria. Index.

P. M. S. Hacker is a Fellow of St. John′s College Oxford. He is author of Insight and Illusion and Appearance and Reality (Blackwell, 1987). He edited The Renaissance of Gravure: the Art of S. W. Hayter . He has written a number of books with G. P. Baker: Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning (Blackwell, 1980), Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity (Blackwell, 1985), Language, Sense and Nonsense (Blackwell, 1984) and Scepticism, Rules and Language (Blackwell, 1984).

On Volume 1 of An Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations: "Baker and Hacker skilfully conduct the reader through the tangles of controversy that surround the topics of sense and Meaning. They have an admirable grasp of the whole corpus of Wittgenstein′s writings, and they constantly display the sharp contrasts between Wittgenstein′s thought and currently influential ′scientific′ semantics." Norman Malcolm, Times Literacy Supplement "For someone who wants to understand, point for point and in detail, how Wittgenstein′s later philosophy upsets the philosophies of Russell, Frege and the Tractatus, this is the book to read." Philosophical Books On Volume 2: "The authors showed in the first volume that they had in fukll measure the combination of scholarship and philosophical excellence neede to expound and illuminate the intracies of the text. That combination is apparent on every page of the present work." B. Rundle, Philosophical Investigations