A Beginner's Guide to the Later Philosophy of Wittgenstein: Seventeen Lectures and Dialogues on the Philosophical Investigations

by Peter Hacker

Wittgenstein is acknowledged as one of the towering intellectual figures of the twentieth-century, but he is often considered to be difficult to read, let alone to understand. In this Beginner’s Guide, Peter Hacker, a leading authority on the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein and author of a dozen books on the subject, introduces a selection of the leading ideas in Wittgenstein’s masterwork, the Philosophical Investigations. The Guide presupposes no philosophical knowledge, only curiosity and a willingness to shed prejudices. It presents a magisterial understanding of the Investigations in an accessible and witty form.



The approach is the seventeen chapters alternate between authorial lecture and dialogue between the author and an imaginary interlocutor. It is both dialectical and didactic. The interlocutor challenges Wittgenstein’s ideas as presented by the lecturer, and his questions are answered, his qualms resolved, and his challenges rebutted. Innumerable objections are canvassed and patiently refuted or dissolved by comprehensive argument.



Nothing comparable to this exists in the literature on Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein’s revolutionary ideas are presented for the widest possible audience in all their profundity in a style that is both intellectually stimulating and entertaining.

324 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 2, 2024

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best introduction you’ll find on the later Wittgenstein, written by the premier scholar in the area. It’s clear and accessible.

Perhaps the best virtue of the book is how Hacker models the slow and deep thinking that W himself engages in.

The book can be broken up into three sections: 1) W’s arguments against the referential conception of linguistic meaning and his postulation of a “use theory”, 2) W’s arguments against the logical possibility of a private language (arguably the most important argument in 20th C. Philosophy) and the implications for epistemology, philosophy of mind, cognitive science and neuroscience, and, most radically, 3) W’s conception of philosophy as the tribunal of sense and not an endeavour to discover truths and so the subsequent undermining of metaphysics.

[Alfredo Nicolás Dueñas]

I don't think I can be the same guy after finishing this book. Philosophy is not what I thought it was and it is so exciting! Reading this first was a fantastic decision, and it puts Anscombe and Davies in a completely new light. I am confident I am now much better prepared to understand what they are trying to say and identify their method for what it is, rather than an irreverent "I can't make sense of that!"