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Art as Language: Wittgenstein, Meaning, and Aesthetic Theory

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I can't claim to have read everything there is about Wittgenstein, or even half. But as a long time reader of Wittgenstein and his various explicators, I urge anyone interested in W. to purchase this book. The author writes with *very* unusual clarity; so many books about Wittgenstein are written poorly--suffering from wordiness, clumsy syntax, logical confusions, etc. There's something about W. that brings out the worst in many explicators, and that "something" is (typically) the attempt to find a general "method" or grand, overarching "principle." But to attempt such a grand, general approach is to violate, right off the bat, Wittgenstein's arguments.

Professor Hagberg avoids that common trap completely. He does W. a great service by applying several of W's. key arguments to specific contexts in art criticism and aesthetics. This approach--the specific *application* of specific *arguments* in specific *contexts* is very true to W.'s approach, and it pays off beautifully in some of the most lucid writing about W. (or philosophical matters generally) that you'll ever come across.

Finally, this is a terrific book for both beginners and veterans of W. It's especially good for those readers who get tantalizing "glimpses" of what W. is about but who get frustrated with the often opaque, wordy, and clumsy explications of him.

In conclusion: I'm not kidding or even exaggerating...this will be, for many interested in W., the very book they've been looking for but couldn't find...up to now.