Full Description
This is a collection of essays on Wittgenstein and Wittgensteinian themes that appeared between 1996 and 2019. It is divided into three parts, with a common trajectory laid out in a substantial introduction. The first part links meaning, necessity and normativity. It defends and modifies Wittgenstein's claim that the idea of a 'grammatical rule' holds the key to understanding linguistic meaning and its connection to necessary truth. The second part elucidates the connections between meaning, concepts and thought in Wittgenstein and beyond. It shows how he laid the grounds for a sound understanding of four contested issues—radical interpretation, concepts, nonsense and animal minds. The third part provides a qualified defence of Wittgenstein's controversial idea that philosophical problems are conceptual, and thereby rooted in confusions concerning the meanings of and semantic relations between linguistic expressions. Against irrationalist interpretations, it demonstrates that Wittgenstein's method is argumentative rather than therapeutic. The collection as a whole makes a powerful case for an analytic perspective on Wittgenstein. The essays bring out the abiding relevance of Wittgenstein's reflections to contemporary debates on central topics such as the role of normativity, the foundations of linguistic meaning, the nature of concepts, the possibility of animal thought, and the proper methods of philosophy.
Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction: Wittgenstein, Reason and Rules; Part I Norms and Necessity, Chapter 1 Necessity and Normativity; Chapter 2 Necessity and Language: In Defence of Conventionalism; Chapter 3 Does Language Require Conventions?; Chapter 4 Philosophy Rehinged?; Part II Thought and Concepts, Chapter 5 On Safari with Wittgenstein, Quine and Davidson ; Chapter 6 All Kinds of Nonsense; Chapter 7 Wittgenstein on Concepts; Chapter 8 Thought, Language and Animals; Part III Meaning and Philosophy, Chapter 9 What Is Meaning? A Wittgensteinian Answer to an Un-Wittgensteinian Question; Chapter 10 Philosophical Investigations Section 128: 'Theses in Philosophy' and Undogmatic Procedure; Chapter 11 Philosophy and Philosophical Method; Chapter 12 Unruly Wittgensteinians; Bibliography; Index of Names and Subjects
