Wittgenstein's On Certainty

Rush Rhees (1905–89) was one of Wittgenstein’s closest friends and his literary executor. He taught at Swansea from 1940 to 1966. Amongst Wittgenstein’s posthumous works edited by Rhees are Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (1956), Blue and Brown Books (1958), Philosophical Remarks (1964), Lecture On Ethics (1965) and Philosophical Grammar (1969). Rhees is also the author of Discussions of Wittgenstein (1970, 1996) and Wittgenstein and the Possibility of Discourse (1998). D. Z. Phillips is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Rush Rhees Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales, Swansea, and Danworth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate School, California. He has published widely in the philosophy of religion and ethics; some of his more recent books include Interventions in Ethics (1992), Wittgenstein and Religion (1993) and Religion and the Hermeneutics of Contemplation (2001). He is also editor of the Blackwell journal Philosophical Investigations.

Preface vii

PART I THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND TO ON CERTAINTY 1

1 On Certainty: A New Topic? 3

2 Saying and Describing 6

3 Concept-Formation 11

4 ‘Seeing’ and ‘Thinking’ 16

5 Thought and Language 27

6 Picturing Reality 34

7 What Makes Language Language? 40

8 The Logical and the Empirical 44

9 On Certainty: A Work in Logic 48

PART II DISCUSSIONS OF ON CERTAINTY 53

10 Two Conversations with Wittgenstein on Moore 55

11 Preface to On Certainty 61

12 On Certainty’s Main Theme 67

13 Induction 73

14 Wittgenstein’s Propositions and Foundations 78

15 Language as Emerging from Instinctive Behaviour 93

16 Words and Things 106

17 Not Worth Mentioning? 111

18 Certainty and Madness 118

PREFACE

Appendix 1: Comparisons Between On Certainty and Wittgenstein’s Earlier Work 125

Appendix 2: Some Passages Relating to Doubt and Certainty in On Certainty 131

Afterword: Rhees on Reading On Certainty 133
D. Z. Phillips

Notes 183

Index 192