Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The book assembles fifteen papers by Schroeder on a somewhat eclectic range of topics in the philosophy of language, mind and action, as well as on aesthetics, ethics, and religion, all previously published, and all about, or closely related to, Wittgenstein's philosophy.Lucidly written, the book occasionally puts Wittgensteinian ideas in conversation with later analytic philosophers, for example Davidson, Kripke and Williamson, though not systematically, and it portrays, without much attention to alternatives, a familiar image of the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy: from cold strict and rigidly systematic logicism to a more nuanced and relaxed context-sensitive humanism.This also often involves taking post-Tractarian claims as reversals of Tractarian insights, rather than, for example, as attempts to rethink those insights, rework them and ultimately, albeit critically, reclaim them.My own interest in Wittgenstein's philosophy is somewhat different from Schroeder's, as will be apparent, and given the space limits, I address only a few points that sparked my interest.I make no comment, for instance, about the final part of the volume about ethics, aesthetics, and religion, except to say that I found parts of it a bit repetitive, and parts comparatively introductory.One issue that surfaces in several places in the volume concerns 'nonsense' as a term of philosophical criticism.The issue surfaces, for example, in the fourth chapter, which is dedicated to the dissolution of the Liar's Paradox.Schroeder there follows Wittgenstein and Ryle and claims that the paradox contains a failure of reference.Take this formulation:(L) This proposition is false.(L) promises a reference to a proposition, Schroeder says, not just to a mere sentence.However, (L) never fully specifies what this proposition is, and this
Source: Philosophical Investigations
DOI: 10.1111/phin.12443
Author: Reshef Agam‐Segal
Institution: Virginia Military Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4402275730