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Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Ernest Gellner
Edited by David Gellner
Foreword by Steven Lukes
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:230
Dimensions(mm): Height 228,Width 152
ISBN/Barcode 9780521639972
ClassificationsDewey:301
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 28 October 1998
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Ernest Gellner (1925-1995) has been described as 'one of the last great central European polymath intellectuals'. His last book throws new light on two leading thinkers of their time. Wittgenstein, arguably the most influential and the most cited philosopher of the twentieth century, is famous for having propounded two radically different philosophical positions. Malinowski, the founder of modern British social anthropology, is usually credited with being the inventor of ethnographic fieldwork, a fundamental research method throughout the social sciences. In a highly original way, Gellner shows how the thought of both men grew from a common background of assumptions - widely shared in the Habsburg Empire of their youth - about human nature, society, and language. Tying together themes which preoccupied him throughout his working life, Gellner epitomizes his belief that philosophy - far from 'leaving everything as it is' - is about important historical, social and personal issues.

Reviews

'... at once a synoptic interpretation of the thought of Wittgenstein and Malinowski; a comparative assessment of their world-views - of their accounts of knowledge, language and culture; a brilliant sociological sketch of the common socio-political and intellectual background which they shared; a view of their influence upon their respective disciplines; and a passionate and polemical argument with them and some of their successors, in which Gellner once more and for the last time eloquently and succinctly expresses his own world view.' Steven Lukes 'The theme of this book - the tension between philosophies of individualism and holism - is both timely and very important. No-one else I know could approach it with the depth and width of Ernest Gellner, taking on philosophy, anthropology and history with such confidence and ability. The book is full of his characteristic wit, insight, lucidity and clarity of vision ... This is a provocative, deeply felt and important work [which] continues the tradition of his major onslaught on some of the closed systems of our century.' Alan MacFarlane