ٌWittgenstein - A Very Short Introduction

In this brief account of Wittgenstein I aim to do two things. The first is to make clear, for a non-specialist readership, the main outline of Wittgenstein's thought. The second is to describe the place of his thought in twentieth-century analytic philosophy. Neither of these aims is easy to fulfill in the confines of a short book. There are a number of reasons for this. The main one is that Wittgenstein's writings are numerous, complicated, and obscure. As a result they invite competing interpretations, and have received many. Full justice to Wittgenstein would require a detailed and therefore lengthy examination of his own writings, together with some account of the voluminous literature which has grown around his work. Nothing of the kind can be offered here. My aims, therefore, are modestly conceived. By 'outline( I mean just that; and I assume no prior knowledge of philosophy on the reader's part. Followers of Wittgenstein argue that it is a mistake to attempt short introductory sketches of his views. One of Wittgenstein's chief disciples, Norman Malcolm, has written: 'An attempt to summarise [Wittgenstein's work] would be neither successful nor useful. Wittgenstein compressed his thoughts to the point where further compression is impossible. What is needed is that they be unfolded and the connections between them traced out.( Wittgenstein's followers add as a further reason the fact that summaries of philosophical views tend naturally to take the form of a systematic account, in the sense of an orderly setting-out of theses point by point, whereas Wittgenstein in his later philosophy expressed an aversion to systematic philosophizing and refused to engage in it. Therefore, brief sketches of Wittgenstein's views, his followers say, seriously misrepresent not just their content but their intention. Contents Note on references xiv List of illustrations xv 1 Life and character 1 2 The early philosophy 16 3 The later philosophy 73 4 Wittgenstein and recent philosophy 126 Further reading 135 I ndex 139