Marie McGinn provides a clear, comprehensive, and original interpretation of Wittgenstein's Tractatus and of its relation to Wittgenstein's later work. The Tractatus is one of the most famous works of early analytic philosophy, the interpretation of which has always been a matter for controversy and is currently the focus for an important philosophical debate.

Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy of Language and Logic

Politics & Social Sciences

McGinn, Marie

Philosophy

Clarendon Press

Discussion of Wittgenstein's Tractatus is currently dominated by two opposing interpretations of the work: a metaphysical or realist reading and the "resolute" reading of Diamond and Conant. Marie McGinn's principal aim in this book is to develop an alternative interpretative line, which rejects the idea; central to the metaphysical reading, that Wittgenstein sets out to ground the logic of our language in features of an independently constituted reality, but which allows that he aims to provide positive philosophical insights into how language functions. McGinn takes as a guiding principle the idea that we should see Wittgenstein's early work as an attempt to eschew philosophical theory and to allow language itself to reveal how it functions. By this account, the aim of the work is to elucidate what language itself makes clear, namely, what is essential to its capacity to express thoughts that are true or false. However, the early Wittgenstein undertakes this descriptive project in the grip of a set of preconceptions concerning the essence of language that determine both how he conceives the problem and the approach he takes to the task of clarification. Nevertheless, the Tractatus contains philosophical insights, achieved despite his early preconceptions, that form the foundation of his later philosophy. The anti-metaphysical interpretation that is presented includes a novel reading of the problematic opening sections of the Tractatus, in which the apparently metaphysical status of Wittgenstein's remarks is shown to be an illusion. The book includes a discussion of the philosophical background to the Tractatus, a comprehensive interpretation of Wittgenstein's early views of logic and language, and an interpretation of the remarks on solipsism. The final chapter is a discussion of the relation between the early and the later philosophy that articulates the fundamental shift in Wittgenstein's approach to the task of understanding how language functions and reveal the still more fundamental continuity in his conception of his philosophical task.

Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy of Logic and Language

Oxford University Press

Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations (Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks)

Wittgenstein is the most influential twentieth century philosopher in the English-speaking world. In the Philosophical Investigations, his most important work, he introduces the famous 'private language argument' which changed the whole philosophical view of language. Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations introduces and assesses: * Wittgenstein's life, and its connection with his thought * the text of the Philosophical Investigations * the importance of Wittgenstein's work to contemporary philosophy.

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations (Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks)

Routledge

The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (The Routledge Guides to the Great Books)

Wittgenstein is one of the most important and influential twentieth-century philosophers in the western tradition. In his Philosophical Investigations he undertakes a radical critique of analytical philosophy's approach to both the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations introduces and assesses: <ul>
<li>Wittgenstein's life</li> <li>The principal ideas of the Philosophical Investigations</li> <li>Some of the principal disputes concerning the interpretation of his work</li> <li>Wittgenstein's philosophical method and its connection with the form of the text.</li>
</ul>
With further reading included throughout, this guidebook is essential reading for all students of philosophy, and all those wishing to get to grips with this masterpiece.

Central to any interpretation of Wittgenstein's later philosophy is an understanding of his philosophical method and the nature of the turn which characterises the evolution from his early to his later work. In the essays in Wittgenstein, Scepticism and Naturalism, Marie McGinn argues that this methodological shift has at its heart a highly distinctive form of naturalism, which has its roots in the works of Goethe. This form of naturalism emphasises achieving a clarified view of complex, natural phenomena in their natural setting, with a view to describing patterns and connections that are in plain view. Wittgenstein is seen as applying these methods to the task of conceptual clarification, whose aim is to dissolve philosophical problems and paradoxes. The essays cover the following topics: scepticism about the external world; scepticism about other minds; knowledge and belief; meaning and rule-following; psychological states and the distinctive first-person use of psychological concepts; the relation between the early and the later philosophy; and the nature of Wittgenstein's naturalism.

Wittgenstein, Scepticism and Naturalism: Essays on the Later Philosophy (Anthem Studies in Wittgenstein)

Anthem Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGinn, Marie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McGinn, Marie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGinn, Marie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy of Language and Logic

Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy of Logic and Language

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations (Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks)

The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (The Routledge Guides to the Great Books)

The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (The Routledge Guides to the Great Books)

Wittgenstein, Scepticism and Naturalism: Essays on the Later Philosophy (Anthem Studies in Wittgenstein)