Wittgenstein (Arguments of the Philosophers)

272 Pages·1987·0.95 MB·English

by  Robert J. Fogelin

WITTGENSTEIN
THE ARGUMENTS OF
THE PHILOSOPHERS

Editor: Ted Honderich
Grote Professor of the Philosophy of
Mind and Logic, University College London
The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment
and history of the entire course of philosophical thought. Each book
constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to the work of a philosopher
or school of major influence and significance.
Already published in the series:
*Augustine Christopher Kirwan
*J.L.Austin Geoffrey Warnock
Ayer John Foster
Bentham Ross Harrison
*Bergson A.R.Lacey
Berkeley George Pitcher
Butler Terence Penelhum
*Descartes Margaret Dauler Wilson
*Dewey J.E.Tiles
Gottlob Frege Hans Sluga
Hegel M.J.Inwood
*Hobbes Tom Sorell
*Hume Barry Stroud
*Husserl David Bell
William James Graham Bird
*Kant Ralph C.S.Walker
*Kierkegaard Alastair Hannay
Locke Michael Ayers
Karl Marx Allen Wood
Meinong Reinhart Grossman
*John Stuart Mill John Skorupski
*G.E.Moore Tom Baldwin
*Nietzsche Richard Schacht
*Peirce Christopher Hookway
*Plato Justin Gosling
*Plotinus Lloyd P.Gerson
*Karl Popper Anthony O’Hear
*The Presocratic Philosophers Jonathan Barnes
*Thomas Reid Keith Lehrer
*Russell R.M.Sainsbury
Santayana Timothy L.S.Sprigge
*Sartre Peter Caws
Sceptics R.J.Hankinson
Schopenhauer D.W.Hamlyn
Socrates Gerasimos Xenophon Santas
Spinoza R.J.Delahunty
*Wittgenstein Robert J.Fogelin
*available in paperback
WITTGENSTEIN

Second edition

Robert J.Fogelin

London and New York
First published 1976
Second edition published in 1987 by
Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

Reissued by Routledge 1995
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

© 1976, 1987 Robert J.Fogelin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress.

ISBN 0-415-11944-8 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0-203-21906-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-21918-X (Glassbook Format)
For F C F

Contents

Preface to the First Edition page xi
Preface to the Second Edition xiii
Abbreviations xv
Part One WITTGENSTEIN’S TRACTATUS 1
I The Atomistic Ontology of the Tractatus 3
1 Introduction 3
2 Facts in logical space 3
3 Wittgenstein’s version of ontological atomism 5
4 States of affairs and the world 11
5 Wittgenstein’s defense of his ontological atomism 14
II Picturing the World 18
1 Introduction 18
2 The pictorial relationship 19
3 Pictorial form 20
4 Thoughts 25
III Propositions 27
1 Propositions and prepositional signs 27
2 Simple signs 29
3 Names in the context of a proposition 31
4 Elementary propositions 34
5 The primacy of elementary propositions 36
IV The Logic of Propositions 39
1 Negation 39
2 Logical “connectives” 41
3 Logical truths 45
4 The general form of the proposition 47
vii
CONTENTS
5 Logical inference 50
6 Probability 51
V Generality 54
1 The problem of general propositions 54
2 Functions and expressions 55
3 Functions and type theory 57
4 Generality and the operation N 60
5 Fully general propositions 66
6 Identity 71
7 Prepositional attitudes 74
VI The Naive Constructivism of the Tractatus 78
1 A fundamental error in the logic of the Tractatus 78
2 Proposition 5 and proposition 6 83
3 Numbers and equations 83
VII Necessity 86
1 Necessity and the doctrine of showing 86
2 Are there non-tautological necessary propositions? 88
VIII My World, Its Value, and Silence 93
1 Solipsism 93
2 Values 96
3 The insignificance of the sayable 97
4 A critique of showing 100
Part Two WITTGENSTEIN’S LATER PHILOSOPHY 105
IX The Critique of the Tractatus 107
1 The problem of interpretation 107
2 The motley of language 110
3 The critique of ostensive definition 115
4 Inner acts of ostention 118
5 A remark on meaning and use 121
6 Simples 122
7 Transcendental illusions surrounding the idea of 127
simples
8 The attack on analysis 130
9 Family resemblance 133
10 Comments on family resemblance 136
11 Wittgenstein’s treatment of proper names 138
12 Some remarks on philosophy 140
X Understanding 144
1 Introduction 144
viii
CONTENTS
2 “Now I can go on!” 145
3 Deriving 147
4 Experiencing the because 149
XI Sceptical Doubts and a Sceptical Solution to These 155
Doubts
1 The same again 155
2 The machine as symbol for itself 156
3 A “paradox” and its solution 159
XII The Private Language Argument 166
1 Its occurrence in the text 166
2 Privacy and certainty 169
3 The idle ceremony 172
4 The training argument 175
5 The public-check argument 179
6 The subject concluded 183
XIII Topics in Philosophical Psychology 186
1 Introduction 186
2 Plan for the treatment of psychological concepts 187
3 Expression 188
4 Linguistic expression 191
5 Seeing as 201
6 Wittgenstein’s know-nothing approach 205
XIV Topics in the Philosophy of Mathematics 211
1 Introduction 211
2 Anti-Platonism without conventionalism 211
3 Invention and discovery 217
4 Infinity 218
5 Wittgenstein’s anti-foundationalism 223
XV Wittgenstein and the History of Philosophy 226
Notes 235
Selected Bibliography 249
Index 252

ix