Wittgenstein and Gadamer: Towards a Post-Analytic Philosophy of Language

by Chris Lawn

Overview

The book focuses on how Wittgenstein and Gadamer treat language in their accounts of language as game and their major writings on the subject - Philosophical Investigations and Truth and Method, respectively. Chris Lawn goes on to offer a critique of Wittgenstein's account of linguistic rules, drawing upon Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, particularly his emphasis upon tradition, temporality, historicality and novelty. The text demonstrates how paying attention to such elements - excluded by Wittgenstein's conception of rules - in fact strengthens Wittgenstein's position from a hermeneutical perspective. Finally, Wittgenstein and Gadamer investigates the possibility of connection between Wittgenstein's focus upon lexical particularity and Gadamer's greater concern for the universal and the general. A groundbreaking work of post-analytic philosophy, Wittgenstein and Gadamer brings the work of two major modern philosophers in to dialogue. It is required reading for anyone studying or researching the work of either philosopher, or the philosophy of language more generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826493774
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/15/2007
Series:	Continuum Studies in British Philosophy
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Chris Lawn is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He is the author of The Philosophy of the History of Philosophy (Acumen, 2008).

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroduction1. The nature of language: Two philosophical traditions2. Gadamer and Wittgenstein: contrasts and commonalities3. Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and the ontology of language4. Wittgenstein and the logics of language5. 'What has history to do with me?': Language and/as historicality6. A competition of interpretations: Wittgenstein and Gadamer read Augustine7. Ordinary and extraordinary language: The hermeneutics of the poetic wordConclusionBibliography

Editorial Reviews

'This work achieves the goal of presenting a well argued and balanced comparison of these two great German language philosophers ... This is a book which students of Gadamer and Wittgenstein cannot afford to ignore and one which will hopefully lead to further productive engagement between their two philosophies.' --Sanford Lakoff

'Much illumination can be gained by thinking about the connections and differences between the practice of hermeneutics and Wittgenstein's unusual approach to language. Lawn is to be complimented for opening up this avenue of thought.'--Alessandra Tanesini "Radical Philosophy "

From the Publisher