Customer Reviews

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (SUNY Series in Philosophy)

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I bought this book on the strength of Cora Diamond's blurb on the back cover. I was very disappointed. Especially in his discussion of rule following, Brenner does not so much explain the relevant ideas as he paraphrases them. (An example: in his discussion of sections 206-223, Brenner imagines someone asking "suppose different people respond in diffferent ways to the same order. Who is right?" He answers, "if there is an established practice among these people then the right way will mean the customary way." The answer is a direct paraphrase of the text around section 201. But simply paraphrasing or extracting from the text gets us nowhere. If you already understand Wittgenstein, you will understand this remark. If not you won't. Either way, it won't much help.) Brenner's discussion of the private language argument is better. But there's still _much_ better expository material available.

I was hoping to get an overview of Wittgenstein's philosophical investigations - this is not it. According to the introduction, Wittgenstein is considered very hard to understand and the author is going to prove that his writings were actually coherent. Then he takes us on a confused trip through the works. The author gives a zillion footnotes back into W's papers and quotes from them at length. I didn't feel there was a synthesis of W's work, more of a confused roadmap. If you're a Wittgenstein junkie then you might find this book useful. I felt like I was reading a grad student's research paper. If you're a student of philosophy looking to understand what Wittgenstein is all about, then this is not the book for you.

WPI Review


Of all the exegesis on Wittgenstein's work, this one suffers the greatest lack of clarity. Anyone who wishes to understand Wittgenstein should steer clear of Brenner's work. Speaking from an experienced vista (a student in Brenner's class) the material covered in Brenner's WPI and his course at ODU is unnecessarily difficult to understand. The combination of irrelevant commentary from other sources and awkward language makes this book one for the recycling pile. The review on the back by Cora Diamond would lead one to believe this work offers some kind of insight that cannot be obtained elsewhere. I would advise the reader to continue looking.

As other readers who left comments suggest, this book is a lackluster example of Wittgenstein. If you are interested in learning about Wittgenstein there are other sources with a mainstream analysis availble. This book tends to be vaguely written and isn't devoid of making presumptuous claims that cannot be substanitiated. In other words, the work is largely composed of opinion that is not in correspondence with the major scholars of Wittgenstein.

You have heard it said that all philosophical arguments are nothing more than arguments about words. This was Wittgenstein's premise. He believed that the perfect definition was nothing more than a philosophical mirage. More importantly there is the hint of an ethical premise in The Investigations. The hint lies in the most misunderstood of all philosophical remarks: the "forms of life." Interpreted in more ways than you can fill out a lottery card, Wittgenstein insinuated that how you live your life is the most important of all philosophical statements you will ever make. He also insinuated that not all meaning was tied up in language, texts and signs. Both insinuations are as heretical now as they were then. Still today we find ourselves slidding on the "icey logic of language."

A question to you all.

Isn't Wit's basic premise about language and truth just a slant on Sausseurian linguistics with lots of blather and a critique of his (Wit's) prior incarnation in the Tractatus? (the tractatus being the single most pseudo and naive work in the history of phi in my opinion and Wit's first book.)