The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

Hans D. Sluga (Editor), David G. Stern (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0521465915 | ISBN-13: 978-0521465915 | Edition: 1st

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century, but he is also one of the least accessible. This volume provides a comprehensible guide to his work by a wide range of experts who are actively engaged in new work on Wittgenstein. The essays, which are both expository and original, address central themes in his philosophy of mind, language, logic, and mathematics and clarify the connections among the different stages in the development of his work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Visiting his student Ludwig Wittgenstein one night only to find him in the throes of despair, Bertrand Russell facetiously asked whether it was logic or his sins that was troubling him. "Both," Wittgenstein gravely replied. Is it any wonder that Wittgenstein the man, as well as his elusive but profound philosophical work, continue to fascinate? "Any attempt at a definitive exposition of his ideas would be doomed to failure," according to editor Hans Sluga; therefore, the Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein is intended mainly "to alert readers to some of the most important and most interesting issues raised in Wittgenstein's philosophical writings." For the most part, the 14 essays succeed.

With the exception of Thomas Ricketts's discussion of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the focus of the essays is on Wittgenstein's later work, particularly the Philosophical Investigations. His conception of philosophy is approached from various angles by Robert J. Fogelin, Newton Garver, and Stanley Cavell. The format of Cavell's essay--which consists of his lecture notes from the 1960s and 1970s interspersed with afterthoughts from the 1990s--is somewhat irritating, but the depth of his insight makes up for it. Other essays deal with Wittgenstein's ideas about the philosophy of mathematics, ethics, necessity and normativity, the self, and epistemology. Especially worthy of attention is Donna M. Summerfield's "Fitting and Tracking: Wittgenstein on Representation." In explaining the development of Wittgenstein's thought about representation, Summerfield also manages to sketch the philosophical problem of representation in careful and perspicacious detail. All in all, The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein is recommended to anyone grappling with its enigmatic subject. --Glenn Branch

Review

' ... this new collection of essays will give on a clear illustration of how writers on Wittgenstein are working, or rather, struggling today. It will encourage one to explore the unknown dimensions to which Wittgenstein's ideas may be relevant.' The Philosophers' Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 526 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (October 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521465915
• ISBN-13: 978-0521465915
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Window on Wittgenstein, April 10, 2001

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Scott O'Reilly (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

Wittgenstein is considered among the most important philosophers of the 20th century, he is certainly among the most difficult. But he is also among the most worthwhile. He was concerned, among other matter, with the relationship of language to the world, of the ontological status of mind and consciousness, and of showing how language itself helped create false philosophical problems. "When language takes a holiday," as Wittgenstein puts it, we can create all sorts of philosophical problems - the mind-body problem may be one of these if Wittgenstein is correct.

There are a number of good essays in this collection, but Hans Sulga's "Whose House is That?: Wittgenstein on the Self" may be the best. Sulga explores how Wittgenstein's analysis of language led him to a rejection of Cartesian substantialism - or the idea that consciousness, the soul, or the mind, was an immaterial substance - a "soul atamon" as Nietzsche would put it - tethered to a physical body and capable of existing independently of that body. But Wittgenstein also rejected opposing views such as materialism, behaviorism, and reductionism as well. Indeed, he shows how such opposing camps actually share some of the same underlying assumptions. All this leads Wittgenstein to a radical and important new way of understanding subjectivity. For those interested in an accessible introduction to Wittgenstein's thinking on these matters this volume is a good place to start - particularly Sulga's essay.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Wittgenstein, October 5, 2002

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Flounder (Substitution Instance) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

As an introduction to making sense of Wittgenstein's work (and his contribution to 20th C. Philosophy), or as a scholarly apparatus, this is a superb collection of articles. It places the reader square in the middle of current discussion in Wittgenstein studies, and this anthology is a good entry into the threshold of that research. With this, you enter into a world of pain [I just had to say that. Somehow it is appropriate to juxtapose W. with quotes from the The Big Lebowski (a film)].

Wittgenstein is a difficult and at times obscure philosopher. However, this anthology and Crary's New W. (Routledge) makes the best case for W's relevance to the philosophy of math and the philosophy of mind.

Some of the more important articles included here are: Stern, "Availability of W's Philosophy," Cavell, "Notes and Afterthoughts," Stroud, "Mind, Meaning and Practice" (excellent), Sluga (on W's subjectivism), Fogelin, Ricketts on W's Tractatus, and the following figures on math and math necessity: Diamond, Gerrard, and Glock.

I highly recommend this anthology. I also recommend: Crary's New W; W. in America; McDowell's articles on rule-following; Stroud, Mind Meaning and Practice (Oxford UP); Dummett, Putnam, and Diamond's Realistic Spirit. Also see David Stern's book on W, as well as Diamond's Realistic Spirit.