On Wittgenstein

Wadsworth Philosophers Series

by Jaakko Hintikka

This brief text assists students in understanding Wittgenstein's philosophy and thinking so that they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the "Wadsworth Philosophers Series," (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON WITTGENSTEIN is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher better enabling students to engage in the reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic

65 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful book. Written by a renowned Finnish logician, it is billed as an introduction to Wittgenstein's key ideas, but it is not this at all, but rather, a cherry-picked selection of key ideas which the author soon pompously proceeds to inform the reader are all generally wrong without offering any real arguments as to why this is the case. Furthermore, the author comes up with the ridiculous theory (an explanatory innovation of which he seems quite proud) that the real reason Wittgenstein rejected mathematical Platonism in favour of a social constructivist account of mathematics was because he was dyslexic (unverified) since "Dyslexics of the kind Wittgenstein was find it difficult to master intellectually complex structures when they are presented verbally or otherwise symbolically, as distinguished for instance from a geometrical representation". Writes Hintikaa: "Wittgenstein's comments on logic and mathematics do not show that he had much of a grasp of what mathematicians and logicians were doing". Right... that's why Bertrand Russell asked Wittgenstein to rewrite his foundational mathematical text "Principa Mathematica". Absurd... Worst way to spend a train journey ever.

[Mridul Singhai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful, but misses a lot compared to other titles in the series.