Bücher der Reihe On Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is arguably one of the most influential books of the 20th century. The volume explores the development of Wittgenstein's ideas in the direction of the Investigations and reassesses the relevance of Wittgenstein's masterpiece within contemporary philosophical debate.

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is arguably one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Featuring essays by internationally renowned scholars, this book explores the development of Wittgenstein's ideas in the direction of the Investigations.

This book brings together for the first time two philosophers from different traditions and different centuries. While Wittgenstein was a focal point of 20th century analytic philosophy, it was Hegel¿s philosophy that brought the essential discourses of the 19th century together and developed into the continental tradition in 20th century. This now-outdated conflict took for granted Hegel¿s and Wittgenstein¿s opposing positions and is being replaced by a continuous progression and differentiation of several authors, schools, and philosophical traditions. The development is already evident in the tendency to identify a progression from a ¿Kantian¿ to a ¿Hegelian phase¿ of analytical philosophy as well as in the extension of right and left Hegelian approaches by modern and postmodern concepts. Assessing the difference between Wittgenstein and Hegel can outline intersections of contemporary thinking.¿¿¿¿¿

Wittgenstein's thought is reflected in his reading and reception of other authors. Wittgenstein Reading approaches the moment of literature as a vehicle of self-reflection for Wittgenstein. What sounds, on the surface, like criticism (e.g. of Shakespeare) can equally be understood as a simple registration of Wittgenstein's own reaction, hence a piece of self-diagnosis or self-analysis. The book brings a representative sample of authors, from Shakespeare, Goethe, or Dostoyevsky to some that have received far less attention in Wittgenstein scholarship like Kleist, Lessing,or Wilhelm Busch and Johann Nepomuk Nestroy. Furthermore, the volume offersmeans for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts. Unique to this book is its internal design. The editors' introduction sets the scene with regards to both biography and theory, while each of the subsequent chapters takes a quotation from Wittgenstein on a particular author as its point of departure for developing a more specific theme relating to the writer in question. This format serves to avoid the well-trodden paths of discussions on the relationship between philosophy and literature, allowing for unconventional observations to be made. Furthermore, the volume offersmeans for the cultural contextualization of Wittgenstein's thoughts.