Wittgenstein finished part 1 of the Philosophical Investigations in the spring of 1945. From 1946 to 1949 he worked on the philosophy of psychology almost without interruption. The present two-volume work comprises many of his writings over this period. Some of the remarks contained here were culled for part 2 of the Investigations ; others were set aside and appear in the collection known as Zettel . The great majority, however, although of excellent quality, have hitherto remained unpublished. This bilingual (...) edition of the Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology presents the first English translation of an essential body of Wittegenstein's work. It elaborates Wittgenstein's views on psychological concepts such as expectation, sensation, knowing how to follow a rule, and knowledge of the sensations of other persons. It also shows strong emphasis on the "anthropological" aspect of Wittgenstein's thought. Philosophers, as well as anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists will welcome this important publication. (shrink)

As a result of the increase in genetic testing and the fear of discrimination by insurance companies, employers, and society as a result of genetic testing, the disciplines of ethics, public health, and genetics have converged. Whether relatives of someone with a positive predictive genetic test should be notified of the results and risks is a matter urgently in need of debate. Such a debate must encompass the moral and ethical obligations of the diagnosing physician and the patient. The decision (...) to inform or not will vary depending on what moral theory is used. Utilising the utilitarian and libertarian theories produces different outcomes. The principles of justice and non-maleficence will also play an important role in the decision. (shrink)

Bazzocchi disposes the text of the Tractatus in a user-friendly manner, exactly as Wittgenstein's decimals advise. This discloses the logical form of the book by distinct reading units, linked into a fashioned hierarchical tree. The text becomes much clearer and every reader can enjoy, finally, its formal and literary qualities.

These works, as the sub-title makes clear, are unfinished sketches for Philosophical Investigations, possibly the most important and influential philosophical work of modern times. The 'Blue Book' is a set of notes dictated to Witgenstein's Cambridge students in 1933-1934: the 'Brown Book' was a draft for what eventually became the growth of the first part of Philosophical Investigations. This book reveals the germination and growth of the ideas which found their final expression in Witgenstein's later work. It is indispensable therefore (...) to students of Witgenstein's thought and to all those who wish to study at first-hand the mental processes of a thinker who fundamentally changed the course of modern philosophy. (shrink)

Vorwort -- Vortrag über Ethik -- Bemerkungen über logische Form -- Bemerkungen über Frazers Golden Bough -- Aufzeichnungen für Vorlesungen über "privates Erlebnis" und "Sinnesdaten" -- Ursache und Wirkung ; Intuitives Erfassen -- Textnachweise.

Editorial preface to the fourth edition and modified translation -- The text of the Philosophische Untersuchungen -- Philosophische untersuchungen = Philosophical investigations -- Philosophie der psychologie, ein fragment = Philosophy of psychology, a fragment.

Written in code under constant threat of battle, Wittgenstein's searing and illuminating diaries finally emerge in this first-ever English translation. During the pandemic, Marjorie Perloff, one of our foremost scholars of global literature, found her mind ineluctably drawn to the profound commentary on life and death in the wartime diaries of eminent philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). Upon learning that these notebooks, which richly contextualize the early stages of his magnum opus, the Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus, had never before been published in English, (...) the Viennese-born Perloff determinedly set about translating them. Beginning with the anxious summer of 1914, this historic, en-face edition presents the first-person recollections of a foot soldier in the Austrian Army, fresh from his days as a philosophy student at Cambridge, who must grapple with the hazing of his fellow soldiers, the stirrings of a forbidden sexuality, and the formation of an explosive analytical philosophy that seemed to draw meaning from his endless brushes with death. Much like Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief, Private Notebooks takes us on a personal journey to discovery as it augments our knowledge of Wittgenstein himself. (shrink)

[1] Biographie, Philosophie, Praxis -- [2] Het spel van het naamloze / naar een concept van Joseph Kosuth.

Raimo Tuomela is one of the pioneers of social action theory and has done as much as anyone over the last thirty years to advance the study of social action and collective intentionality. Social Ontology: Collective Intentionality and Group Agents (2013) presents the latest version of his theory and applications to a range of important social phenomena. The book covers so much ground, and so many important topics in detailed discussions, that it would impossible in a short space to do (...) it even partial justice. In this brief note, I will concentrate on a single, though important, theme in the book, namely, the claim that we must give up methodological individualism in the social sciences and embrace instead irreducibly group notions. I wish to defend methodological individualism as up to the theoretical tasks of the social sciences while acknowledging what is distinctive about the social world and collective intentional action. -/- Tuomela frames the question of the adequacy of methodological individualism in terms of a contrast between what he calls the I-mode and the we-mode. He argues that we-mode phenomena are not reducible to I-mode phenomena, and concludes that we must reject methodological individualism. I will argue that the irreducibility of the we-mode to the I-mode, given how the contrast is set up, does not entail the rejection of methodological individualism. In addition, I will argue that the three conditions that Tuomela places on genuine we-mode activities, the group reason, collectivity, and collective commitment conditions, if they are understood in a way that does not beg the question, can plausibly be satisfied by a reductive account. Finally, I will argue that the specific considerations advanced in the book do not give us reason to think that a reductive account cannot be adequate to the descriptive and explanatory requirements of a theory of the social world. (shrink)

Bazzocchi disposes the text of the Tractatus in a user-friendly manner, exactly as Wittgenstein's decimals advise. This discloses the logical form of the book by distinct reading units, linked into a fashioned hierarchical tree. The text becomes much clearer and every reader can enjoy, finally, its formal and literary qualities.

Kant développe en faveur de la séparation des pouvoirs d’autres arguments que les fondateurs de la théorie moderne de la division des pouvoirs ; or ses raisons sont les seules à conduire de manière contraignante à la triade aujourd’hui familière : pouvoir législatif, exécutif, judiciaire. L’article voudrait explorer ces raisons et montrer aussi précisément que possible à quel résultat elles concourent. En fin de compte, cinq questions demeurent ouvertes : 1 / Les raisons de Kant suffisent-elles à énumérer de manière (...) exhaustive les pouvoirs publics que doivent exercer différentes instances ? 2 / Nous offrent-elles un concept convainquant du pouvoir souverain en la personne du législateur ? 3 / Offrent-elles un concept convainquant du pouvoir juridictionnel ? 4 / Parviennent-elles à établir des digues efficaces contre l’abus du pouvoir public ? 5 / Permettent-elles au gouvernement de prendre en compte les intérêts auquel répond un État social ?Kant's arguments for separating the powers of a government are not those of Locke or Montesquieu. But only his reasons compelled to the now familiar triad of legislative, executive and judicial power. The essay intends to uncover those reasons, and shows to which result they meet. Finally there remain five questions : 1 / Are Kant's reasons sufficient to know the complete number of powers that have to be separated and handled by distinct bodies ? 2 / Do they give a convincing concept of supreme power in the person of a legislator ? 3 / Do they give a convincing concept of judicial power ? 4 / Can the separation effectively protect against abuses of governmental power ? 5 / Does Kant's connection of the different powers allow that the government looks after interests of civil welfare and not only for an abstract salus publica ? (shrink)

Wittgenstein's work remains, undeniably, now, that off one of those few philosophers who will be read by all future generations.

Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance, it immediately convinced many of its readers and captivated the imagination of all. Its chief influence, at first, was on the Logical Positivists of the 1920s and 30s, but many other philosophers were stimulated by its (...) philosophy of language, finding attractive, if ultimately unsatisfactory, its view that propositions were pictures of reality. Perhaps most of all, Wittgenstein himself, after his return to philosophy in the late 1920s, was fascinated by its vision of an inexpressible, crystalline world of logical relationships. The posthumous publication of other writings has, therefore, only served to reawaken interest in the Tractatus and to illuminate its more neglected aspects. David Pears and Brian McGuinness revised their translation in the light of Wittgenstein's own suggestions and comments in his correspondence with C.K. Ogden about the first translation. In addition, this edition contains the introduction by Bertrand Russell which appeared in the original English translation. (shrink)

Mit Beginn der 1990er Jahre setzten in den USA und Westeuropa systematische Versuche ein, eine politikwissenschaftliche feministische Staatstheorie zu entwickeln. Der Einsatz dieser neuen Beschaftigung mit dem Staat zielt auf die Beantwortung der Frage, wie Geschlecht und Geschlechterverhaltnisse als konstitutive Elemente des modernen Staates begriffen werden konnen. Dies beinhaltet die Analyse vergeschlechtlichter staatlicher Institutionen, die Regulierung des Verhaltnisses von Mannern und Frauen durch staatliche Instrumente, aber auch die "Herstellung" von Geschlechtern bzw. Geschlechterverhaltnissen durch Staaten - also Formen der Subjekt- und (...) Identitatsbildung. Der vorliegende Band gibt einen Einblick in den aktuellen Stand feministischer Staatsdebatten, er macht aber auch exemplarisch sichtbar, welchen Beitrag feministische Konzepte zur Analyse staatlichen Wandels, der Veranderung geschlechtsspezifischer Staatlichkeit sowie fur eine staatstheoretische Begrundung von Emanzipation und Geschlechterdemokratie leisten konnen. (shrink)

Intellectual diary of a thinker of the school of Logical Positivism showing the day-by-day development of his philosophical ideas.

i How can one talk about 'understanding' and 'not understanding' a proposition? Surely it is not a proposition until it's understood ? ...

Fodor argue that Darwinism cannot be true on the grounds that there are no laws of selection to support counterfactuals about why traits are selected-for. Darwinian explanations, according to this objection, amount to mere ‘plausible historical narratives’. I argue that the objection is predicated on two problematic assumptions: A nomic-subsumption account of causation and causal explanation, and a fine-grained view of the individuation of selected-for effects. Against the former, I argue that Darwinian explanations are a historical species of mechanistic explanation (...) and that mechanisms are causally productive and counterfactual supporting in the absence of appropriate laws. Once this mechanistic framework is in place, the demand for laws of selection vanishes and the historical cum causal coherence of Darwinism is restored. As for the second assumption, I argue that it is an artefact of the teleosemantic program with no basis in evolutionary biology and that properly understood, Darwinian evolutionary biology shows just why teleosemantics cannot succeed. (shrink)

Peter Finch's translation of Wittgenstein's remarks on culture and value presents all entries chronologically, with the German text alongside the English and a subject index for reference. "It was Wittgenstein's habit to record his thoughts in sequences of more or less closely related 'remarks' which he kept in notebooks throughout his life. The editor of this collection has gone through these notebooks in order to select those 'remarks' which deal with Wittgenstein's views abou the less technical issues in his philosophy. (...) So here we have Wittgenstein's thoughts about religion, music, architecture, the nature of philosophy, the spirit of our times, genius, being Jewish, and so on. The work is a masterpiece by a mastermind."—Leonard Linsky. (shrink)

This popular selection of Wittgenstein’s key writings has now been updated to include new material relevant to recent debates about the philosopher. Follows the evolution of Wittgenstein’s philosophical thought from the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus through to the Philosophical Investigations. Excerpts are arranged by topic and introduce readers to all the central concerns of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Now includes a new chapter on ‘Sense, Nonsense and Philosophy’ incorporating material relevant to recent debates about Wittgenstein.

The most important work of the famed German philosopher, this 1841 polemic asserts that religion and divinity are outward projections of inner human nature. Feuerbach's critique of Hegelian idealism excited immediate international attention — Marx and Engels were particularly influenced. This acclaimed translation is by the celebrated English novelist George Eliot.

The so-called "Big Typescript" is Wittgenstein's first attempt to publish in a book his collected thoughts since his return to Cambridge and to philosophical writing, thus correcting the "serious errors" (Wittgenstein) of his early work. Among the texts in Wittgenstein's estate, the "Big Typescript" is the one that, next to the "Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung" (the "Tractatus") of 1918, appears to be the most "finished", with a table of contents structured in chapters and sections. It is, however, a fragment, without either title, (...) motto or conclusion. To Wittgenstein, it was important "that the thoughts in [the book] should progress from one subject to another in well-ordered consecutiveness." It is precisely this structure of the "Big Typescript", though ultimately rejected by Wittgenstein, which constitutes the immeasurable value of the text for the study of and as an introduction to Wittgenstein's thinking. (shrink)

Die Zeit um 1700 wird gerne mit dem Epochen-Begriff der Frühaufklärung belegt. Ihre Diskurse und Tendenzen werden dadurch, häufig unter der Hand, mitunter aber auch explizit teleologisierend, auf die Positionen des späteren 18. Jahrhunderts ausgerichtet. Statt die um 1700 zu beobachtenden Öffnungen als Auftakt zu einer großen, weltbildlichen wie sozialen, Öffnung der Aufklärung durch Vernunft und Kritik zu betrachten, fragt der vorliegende Band nach Öffnungen, auf die wieder neue Schließungen folgten. Welche Gründe hatte die neuartige Offenheit, die die Kultur um (...) 1700 zu einem großen Experimentierfeld machte, und welche Folgen hatte sie? Welche neuen Handlungsspielräume und Rollen in der Öffentlichkeit entstanden damals? Manche der neuen Leitideen – wie die Pflicht zur vernünftigen Begründung allen Denkens und Handelns – können geradezu als Antwort auf die Unsicherheit verstanden werden, die jene Öffnung mit sich brachte. Die relative Offenheit der Zeit um 1700 provozierte, so die These, auch Versuche der neuerlichen Schließung. Der Band wirft neues Licht auf die Frühphase der Aufklärung, um diese insgesamt besser verstehen zu können. (shrink)

Notes taken by these last four are the basis for the thirty-one lectures in this book.

Discusses a variety of maneuvers that editors and publishers, respectively, use with the untoward result that the author conveys something other than what and only what he intended to convey.