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In this Beginner’s Guide, Peter Hacker, the leading authority on the philosophy of Wittgenstein and author of a dozen books on his work, introduces the later philosophy of Wittgenstein to those with an enquiring mind. It selects an array of topics that will capture the interest of all educated readers: the nature of language and linguistic meaning, the analysis of necessity and its roots in convention, the relation of thought and language, the nature of the mind and its relation to behavior, self-consciousness, and knowledge of other minds. No philosophical knowledge is presupposed – only curiosity and a willingness to shed prejudices. Written in a laid-back colloquial style and interspersed by dialogues between the author and questioners, the book is amusing and entertaining to read. Nothing comparable to this exists in the literature on Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein’s ideas are presented in all their profundity for the widest possible audience, in a style that is intellectually stimulating and provocative.
“For decades, Peter Hacker has been a forceful interpreter and expositor of Wittgenstein’s later work. Now he presents this work in a series of introductory lectures and dialogues that are as entertaining as they are instructive and that will serve as an excellent guide for those encountering the work for the first time.” — Adrian W. Moore, Professor, University of Oxford
Preface; 1 Introduction; 2 Augustine’s Picture of Language and the Referential Conception of Linguistic Meaning; 3 Names and Their Meaning, Sentences and Descriptions; 4 Meaning and Use, Understanding and Interpreting; 5 Ostensive Definition and Family Resemblance: Undermining the Foundations and Destroying the Essences; 6 Metaphysics, Necessity and Grammar; 7 Thought and Language; 8 The Private Language Arguments; 9 Private Ownership of Experience; 10 Epistemic Privacy of Experience; 11 Private Ostensive Definition; 12 My Mind and Other Minds; 13 The Inner and the Outer – Behaviour and Behaviourism; 14 ‘Only of a Human Being and What Behaves like a Human Being …’: The Mereological Fallacy and Cognitive Neuroscience; 15 Wittgenstein’s Conception of Philosophy - I; 16 Wittgenstein’s Conception of Philosophy - II; 17 Wittgenstein’s Conception of Philosophy - III; Abbreviations; Further Reading; Index