Wittgenstein's Whewell's Court Lectures

Volker A. Munz is Assistant Professor at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. He is the editor of Language and World (with Klaus Puhl and Joseph Wang, 2010), Mind, Language and Action (with Daniele Moyal-Sharrock and Annalisa Coliva, 2015), the author of Satz und Sinn. Bemerkungen zur Sprachphilosophie Wittgensteins (2005), as well as numerous essays. Bernhard Ritter is University Assistant at the University of Klagenfurt. He has published articles on Kant and Wittgenstein and is the author of the forthcoming Kant and Post-Tractarian Wittgenstein: Transcendentalism, Idealism, Illusion.

Preface ix

Editorial Introduction xiv

List of Editorial Conventions xx

Abbreviations xxii

Whewell’s Court Lectures, Cambridge 1938–1941 1

1 Lectures on Knowledge 6
⟨Easter Term 1938⟩

2 Lectures on Necessary Propositions and Other Topics 50
⟨Easter Term 1938⟩

Lectures on Gödel 50

Puzzle of Trinity College 57

Necessary Propositions 62

‘Absolutely Determinate’ 74

Continuous Band of Colours 76

Are There an Infinite Number of Shades of Colour? 77

‘All There’: Logical Necessity 78

Achilles and the Tortoise 82

Infinitesimal Calculus and Free Will 83

3 Lectures on Similarity 88
⟨Michaelmas Term 1939⟩

4 Lectures on Description 137
⟨Lent Term 1940⟩

5 Wittgenstein’s Reply to a Paper by Y. Smythies on ‘Understanding’ 190
⟨Lent Term 1940⟩

6 Lectures on Belief 203
⟨Easter Term 1940⟩

7 Lectures on Volition 254
⟨Michaelmas Term 1940⟩

8 Lectures on Freedom of the Will 282
⟨Lent Term 1941⟩

Appendix 297

9 Y. Smythies’ 1940 Paper on ‘Understanding’ 300

10 Preparatory Notes for Y. Smythies’ 1945 Paper on ‘Meaning’ 308

11 The King of the Dark Chamber, by Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the English of Rabindranath Tagore into the English used by L. Wittgenstein and Yorick Smythies, by L. Wittgenstein and Yorick Smythies 327

12 Comments Prompted by the Notes Taken From Wittgenstein’s Lectures on Volition and on Freewill, by Y. Smythies 336

Bibliography 348

Index 351