Wittgenstein: Understanding And Meaning: Volume 1 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, Part II: Exegesis §§1–184

Published to widespread acclaim between 1980 and 1996, the monumental four volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations has become the definitive reference work on Wittgenstein’s masterpiece. This revised edition of the first volume, Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning , which itself comprises two parts ( Essays and Exegesis §§1–184 ), takes into account much material that was unavailable when the first edition was written. Following G.P. Baker’s death in 2002, P.M.S. Hacker has thoroughly revised both parts, rewriting many sections completely and often proposing fresh interpretations. Part I: Essays now includes two new essays: ‘Meaning and Use’ and ‘The Recantation of a Metaphysician’, and most of the previous essays have been  rewritten and expanded. Part II: Exegesis §§1 – 184 has been exhaustively reworked in the light of the electronic publication of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass . These revisions will ensure that this remains the essential reference work on the Philosophical Investigations for the foreseeable future.

Acknowledgements. Introduction to Part II: Exegesis. Note to the paperback edition 2009. Abbreviations. The history of the composition of the Philosophical Investigations. An overview of the structure and argument of the Philosophical Investigations. Exegesis. The Title. The Motto. The Preface. Chapter 1 The Augustinian conception of language (§§1–27(a)). Chapter 2 Illusions of naming: ostensive definition, logically proper names, simples and samples, and analysis (§§27(b)–64). Chapter 3 Family resemblance, determinacy of sense, and the quest for essence (§§65–88). Chapter 4 Philosophy (§§89–133). Chapter 5 The general propositional form (§§134–42). Chapter 6 Understanding and ability (§§143–84). Index.

G.P.Baker was a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford from 1967 until his death in 2002. He is the co–author with P.M.S. Hacker of the first two volumes of the four–volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, 1980–96), author of Wittgenstein, Frege and the Vienna Circle (Blackwell, 1988) and with Katherine Morris of Descartes’ Dualism (1996). He also wrote numerous articles on Wittgenstein, Frege, Russell, Waismann and Descartes. P.M.S. Hacker is the leading authority on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. He is author of the four–volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations , the first two volumes co–authored with G.P. Baker (Blackwell, 1980–96) and of Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth–century Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell, 1996). His other previous works include The Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Blackwell, 2003) and History of Cognitive Neuroscience (Wiley–Blackwell, 2008), both co–authored with M.R. Bennett. Most recently he has published Human Nature: The Categorical Framework (Blackwell, 2007), the first volume of a trilogy on human nature.Together with Joachim Schulte, he has produced the 4 th edition and extensively revised translation of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (Wiley–Blackwell, forthcoming 2009).