Wittgenstein (eBook)

G.P.Baker was a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford from 1967 until his death in 2002. He is the co-author with P.M.S. Hacker of the first two volumes of the four-volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, 1980-96), author of Wittgenstein, Frege and the Vienna Circle (Blackwell, 1988) and with Katherine Morris of Descartes' Dualism (1996). He also wrote numerous articles on Wittgenstein, Frege, Russell, Waismann and Descartes. P.M.S. Hacker is the leading authority on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. He is author of the four-volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, the first two volumes co-authored with G.P. Baker (Blackwell, 1980-96) and of Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-century Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell, 1996). His other previous works include The Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Blackwell, 2003) and History of Cognitive Neuroscience (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), both co-authored with M.R. Bennett. Most recently he has published Human Nature: The Categorical Framework (Blackwell, 2007), the first volume of a trilogy on human nature.Together with Joachim Schulte, he has produced the 4th edition and extensively revised translation of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2009).

Acknowledgements.

Introduction to Part II: Exegesis.

Note to the paperback edition 2009.

Abbreviations.

The history of the composition of the Philosophical
Investigations.

An overview of the structure and argument of the
Philosophical Investigations.

Exegesis.

The Title.

The Motto.

The Preface.

Chapter 1 The Augustinian conception of language
(§§1-27(a)).

Chapter 2 Illusions of naming: ostensive definition, logically
proper names, simples and samples, and analysis
(§§27(b)-64).

Chapter 3 Family resemblance, determinacy of sense, and the
quest for essence (§§65-88).

Chapter 4 Philosophy (§§89-133).

Chapter 5 The general propositional form
(§§134-42).

Chapter 6 Understanding and ability
(§§143-84).

Index.

"A commentary on the Investigations is a colossal
undertaking. Baker and Hacker skillfully conduct the reader through
the tangles of controversy that surround the topics of sense and
meaning. They have an admirable grasp of the whole corpus of
Wittgenstein's writings, and they constantly display the sharp
contrasts between Wittgenstein's thought and the currently
influential 'scientific' semantics." Norman Malcolm, Times
Literary Supplement

"[Baker and Hacker] exhibit persuasively and lucidly the order,
not to say structure, underlying the apparently haphazard
assemblage of paragraphs constituting the printed text of the
Investigations. Their detailed knowledge of the corpus of
Wittgenstein's writings, published and unpublished, allows them to
cast light on otherwise obscure remarks in the
Investigations from a variety of additional perspectives.
This procedure frequently explains the purpose of the remarks in
question, the identity of the thinker or thesis against which they
are directed, and so on." Review of Metaphysics

"[The authors'] detailed textual comments are placed within a
carefully thought out view of the structure of the whole. It thus
provides a model for understanding Wittgenstein." Philosophical
Studies

"Wittgenstein: Meaning and Understanding is a sort of
compendium which I wouldn't want to do without. As a matter of
fact, I cannot do without it, both in the sense that I need it to
get all kinds of historical or philological information, as well as
philosophical stimulation, and in the sense that I have become
addicted to the book's magisterial way of bringing out and dealing
with the difficulties of Wittgenstein's masterpiece."
Joachim Schulte, University of Bielefeld