Wittgenstein: Lectures, Cambridge 1930-1933: From the Notes of G. E. Moore

Description

This edition of G. E. Moore's notes taken at Wittgenstein's seminal Cambridge lectures in the early 1930s provides, for the first time, an almost verbatim record of those classes. The presentation of the notes is both accessible and faithful to their original manuscripts, and a comprehensive introduction and synoptic table of contents provide the reader with essential contextual information and summaries of the topics in each lecture. The lectures form an excellent introduction to Wittgenstein's middle-period thought, covering a broad range of philosophical topics, ranging from core questions in the philosophy of language, mind, logic, and mathematics, to illuminating discussions of subjects on which Wittgenstein says very little elsewhere, including ethics, religion, aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and anthropology. The volume also includes a 1932 essay by Moore critiquing Wittgenstein's conception of grammar, together with Wittgenstein's response. A companion website offers access to images of the entire set of source manuscripts.

David G. Stern is a Professor of Philosophy and a Collegiate Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa. His publications include Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2004) and Wittgenstein Reads Weininger (co-edited with Bela Szabados, Cambridge, 2004). Brian Rogers is an attorney in Los Angeles. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine, and has published in journals including The Review of Symbolic Logic and the Nordic Wittgenstein Review. Gabriel Citron is a Postdoctoral Associate in Jewish Philosophy and Lecturer in Philosophy at Yale University, Connecticut. He has published in journals including Mind and Philosophical Investigations.

'The material presented in this edition is of the first importance to Wittgenstein scholarship. It helps us narrow in on early but richly developed steps in Wittgenstein's thinking on issues to do with meaning and understanding, the notion of 'grammar', rule following, notions of sense and nonsense, and the foundations of logic and mathematics ... The editorial approach laid out in the rich introduction and demonstrated in the main sections of the edition seems to me to be just right, striking a balance between completeness and faithfulness, on the one hand, and readability on the other ... this edition helps get us closer to hearing more fully and more directly what Wittgenstein said in his lectures from this period.' Jeff Johnson, St Catherine University, Minnesota 'As we learn more about Wittgenstein's lectures, we find that he often made points in a clearer, subtler, or more elaborate fashion in his lectures than in his own writings. It is a gift to have these full lecture notes by G. E. Moore, that allow us to judge for ourselves the points Wittgenstein made as he engaged with his students over his new thoughts.' James C. Klagge, Virginia Tech 'No one would have been better qualified than G. E. Moore was to take notes enabling him to draw a vivid picture helping today's readers to get a good grasp of what it was like to attend Wittgenstein's brilliant classes in the early 1930s. Stern, Rogers and Citron have done an extremely good job: readers will be indebted to them for a meticulous edition which succeeds in balancing scholarly needs and all reasonable requirements of readability. The book presenting these lecture notes constitutes an exceptional document which everyone interested in the development of Wittgenstein's mature thought will gratefully add to their shelves.' Joachim Schulte, Universitat Zurich 'Moore's notes on Wittgenstein's lectures from 1930 to 1933 illuminate a decisive stage in the development of Wittgenstein's thought from his early to his later philosophy. We see Wittgenstein dismantling day by day the assumptions of the Tractatus and see rising from the rubble the outlines of a fresh, new philosophizing. The volume will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to track the changes in Wittgenstein's thinking. It gains substantially from the extensive editorial and explanatory notes provided by its editors.' Hans Sluga, University of California, Berkeley 'G. E. Moore's notes from Wittgenstein's 1930-1933 Cambridge lectures constitute a new and indispensable resource for students and scholars of Wittgenstein's philosophy alike. ... With reference to Wittgenstein's later philosophy, one key highlight of the text under review is an Appendix containing a short paper on Wittgenstein on 'grammar', delivered to the class by Moore in February 1932. ... Again, I can enthusiastically recommend the book both to students and scholars. For anyone with an interest in Wittgenstein's rich, sophisticated, and challenging philosophy, Moore's notes will prove to be a fruitful and significant, if not essential, scholarly resource.' James Connelly, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review '... [This] volume is a treasure chest. Moore's notes bring Wittgenstein's genius before us by inviting us to listen to his lectures and encounter the intensity of his thought before its brilliance has been disciplined by the carefully organised dialectic one finds in his famous works. The editors have done a tremendous job in resurrecting Moore's notes and thereby enhancing the availability of Wittgenstein's middle philosophy.' Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews