Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations A Critical Guide Cambridge Critical Guides Series

Published in 1953, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations had a deeply unsettling effect upon our most basic philosophical ideas concerning thought, sensation and language. Its claim that philosophical questions of meaning necessitate a close analysis of the way we use language continues to influence Anglo-American philosophy today. However, its compressed and dialogic prose is not always easy to follow. This collection of essays deepens but also challenges our understanding of the work's major themes, such as the connection between meaning and use, the nature of concepts, thought and intentionality, and language games. Bringing together leading philosophers and Wittgenstein scholars, it offers a genuinely critical approach and demonstrating Wittgenstein's relevance for contemporary philosophy. This volume will appeal to readers interested in the later Wittgenstein, in addition to those interested in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology.

List of contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction Arif Ahmed; 1. From referentialism to human action: the Augustinian theory of language Robert Hanna; 2. What's doing? Activity, naming and Wittgenstein's response to Augustine Michael Luntley; 3. Measure for measure? Wittgenstein on language-game criteria and the Paris standard metre bar Dale Jacquette; 4. Wittgenstein on family resemblance concepts Michael Forster; 5. Wittgenstein on concepts Hans-Johann Glock; 6. Wittgenstein vs contextualism Jason Bridges; 7. Wittgenstein and the linguistic turn Richard Rorty; 8. Rorty's Wittgenstein Paul Horwich; 9. Are meaning, understanding, etc. definite states? John McDowell; 10. Another strand in the private language argument David Stern; 11. Deductive inference and aspect perception Arif Ahmed; 12. Remembering intentions William Child; Bibliography; Index.