How To Read Wittgenstein

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title How To Read Wittgenstein
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Ray Monk
SeriesHow to Read
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:128
Dimensions(mm): Height 200,Width 130
Category/GenreHistory of Western philosophy
ISBN/Barcode 9781862077249
ClassificationsDewey:192
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Granta Books
Imprint Granta Books
Publication Date 7 February 2005
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Though Wittgenstein wrote on the same subjects that dominate the work of other analytic philosophers - the nature of logic, the limits of language, the analysis of meaning - he did so in a peculiarly poetic style that separates his work sharply from that of his peers and makes the question of how to read him particularly pertinent. At the root of Wittgenstein's thought, Monk argues, is a determination to resist the scientism characteristic of our age, a determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of non-scientific forms of understanding. The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed of a poem. Extracts are taken from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and from a range of Wittgenstein's posthumously published writings, including Philosophical Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books, On Certainty and Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology.

Author Biography

Ray Monk is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton. He is the author of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius and of a two-volume biography of Bertrand Russell.