Wittgenstein: A Critical Reader

Exploring all of the central themes of Wittgenstein′s oeuvre , this volume includes discussion of core topics such as meaning and use, rule following, the picture theory of language and the nature of philosophy. It also contains topics in which Wittgenstein′s influence is becoming more apparent, such as intentionality and ethics. The book provides a wide–ranging collection of newly commissioned essays on Wittgenstein by internationally established philosophers, including Robert L. Arrington, Stewart Candlish, P. M. S. Hacker, Oswald Hanfling, Hidé Ishiguro, Howard Mounce, Bede Rundle and D. Z. Phillips. The introductory essay explains the various perspectives of the contributors and offers an introduction to Wittgenstein′s work and its development. The essays can profitably be used in conjunction with the selections from Wittgenstein′s work assembled in A. J. P. Kenny′s The Wittgenstein Reader.

List of Contributors. Preface. List of Abbreviations and Primary Sources. 1. The Development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy (Hans–Johann Glock). 2. The So–Called Picture Theory: Language and the World in Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus (Hidé Ishiguro). 3. The Logical System of the Tractatus (Howard Mounce). 4. Wittgenstein on Intentionality (Erich Ammereller). 5. Meaning and Understanding (Bede Rundle). 6. Following a Rule (Robert L. Arrington). 7. Thinking (Oswald Hanfling). 8. The Will (Stewart Candlish). 9. Private Language and Private Experience (Severin Schroeder). 10. The Inner and the Outer (Michel ter Hark). 11. Wittgenstein and ‘I’ (David Bakhurst). 12. Seeing Aspects (Stephen Mulhall). 13. Philosophy of Mathematics (Pasquale Frascolla). 14. Autonomy (Hubert Schwyzer). 15. Wittgenstein on Scepticism and Certainty (A.C. Grayling). 16. Philosophy (P.M.S. Hacker). 17. Ethics, Faith and ‘What Can Be Said’ (D.Z. Phillips). Bibliography. Index.

Hans–Johann Glock is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading. He has been Visiting Professor at Queen′s University, Ontario and a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at Bielefeld University. He is author of A Wittgenstein Dictionary (Blackwell 1996) and Quine and Davidson (2003); editor of The Rise of Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell 1997), Strawson and Kant (2003); and co–editor, with Robert L. Arrington, of Wittgenstein′s Philosophical Investigations (1991) and Wittgenstein and Quine (1996).

"Fifty years after the death of Ludwig Wittgenstein, it is clear that his contribution to philosophy will be as important in the twenty–first century as it was in the twentieth. In this volume Hans–Johann Glock has assembled a number of critical essays by distinguished scholars which will make a weighty contribution to the as yet incomplete reception of Wittgenstein. Writing from a variety of standpoints, the authors offer interpretations of the Wittgensteinian canon which range between the traditional and the innovative, but always invite serious consideration, and which offer a re–evaluation of contemporary trends in philosophy in the light of Wittgenstein′s insights." Anthony Kenny, Pro–Vice–Chancellor, Oxford University