The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein

by Hans D. Sluga

Book Overview

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is one of the most important, influential, and often-cited philosophers of the twentieth century, yet he remains one of its most elusive and least accessible. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521465915
• ISBN13: 9780521465915
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 524 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Essential Wittgenstein

As an introduction to making sense of Wittgenstein's work (and his contribution to 20th C. Philosophy), or as a scholarly apparatus, this is a superb collection of articles. It places the reader square in the middle of current discussion in Wittgenstein studies, and this anthology is a good entry into the threshold of that research. With this, you enter into a world of pain [I just had to say that. Somehow it is appropriate to juxtapose W. with quotes from the The Big Lebowski (a film)].Wittgenstein is a difficult and at times obscure philosopher. However, this anthology and Crary's New W. (Routledge) makes the best case for W's relevance to the philosophy of math and the philosophy of mind. Some of the more important articles included here are: Stern, "Availability of W's Philosophy," Cavell, "Notes and Afterthoughts," Stroud, "Mind, Meaning and Practice" (excellent), Sluga (on W's subjectivism), Fogelin, Ricketts on W's Tractatus, and the following figures on math and math necessity: Diamond, Gerrard, and Glock.I highly recommend this anthology. I also recommend: Crary's New W; W. in America; McDowell's articles on rule-following; Stroud, Mind Meaning and Practice (Oxford UP); Dummett, Putnam, and Diamond's Realistic Spirit. Also see David Stern's book on W, as well as Diamond's Realistic Spirit.

A Window on Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein is considered among the most important philosophers of the 20th century, he is certainly among the most difficult. But he is also among the most worthwhile. He was concerned, among other matter, with the relationship of language to the world, of the ontological status of mind and consciousness, and of showing how language itself helped create false philosophical problems. "When language takes a holiday," as Wittgenstein puts it, we can create all sorts of philosophical problems - the mind-body problem may be one of these if Wittgenstein is correct.There are a number of good essays in this collection, but Hans Sulga's "Whose House is That?: Wittgenstein on the Self" may be the best. Sulga explores how Wittgenstein's analysis of language led him to a rejection of Cartesian substantialism - or the idea that consciousness, the soul, or the mind, was an immaterial substance - a "soul atamon" as Nietzsche would put it - tethered to a physical body and capable of existing independently of that body. But Wittgenstein also rejected opposing views such as materialism, behaviorism, and reductionism as well. Indeed, he shows how such opposing camps actually share some of the same underlying assumptions. All this leads Wittgenstein to a radical and important new way of understanding subjectivity. For those interested in an accessible introduction to Wittgenstein's thinking on these matters this volume is a good place to start - particularly Sulga's essay.