Wittgenstein, Scepticism and Naturalism: Essays on the Later Philosophy

by Marie McGinn

Overview

The essays in Wittgenstein, Scepticism and Naturalism cover the later Wittgenstein’s thought on scepticism about the external world; scepticism about other minds; knowledge and belief; meaning and rule-following; and the nature of psychological concepts. Focusing on topics in the later philosophy, the essays provide a distinctive understanding of the nature of philosophical development of Wittgenstein’s thought from the early to the later work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785278396
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Series:	Anthem Studies in Wittgenstein
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
File size:	737 KB

About the Author

Marie McGinn is Professor Emerita in Philosophy, University of York, UK. She is the author of The Routledge Guidebook to Wittgenstein’s ‘Philosophical Investigations’ (2013) and has published widely on all aspects of Wittgenstein’s philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Works by Wittgenstein; Chapter One Wittgenstein on Certainty; Chapter Two The Real Problem of Others: Cavell, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein on Scepticism about Other Minds; Chapter Three The Everyday Alternative to Scepticism: Cavell and Wittgenstein on Other Minds; Chapter Four Wittgenstein and Knowledge; Chapter Five Wittgenstein and Williamson on Knowing and Believing; Chapter Six Wittgenstein and Moore’s Paradox; Chapter Seven Wittgenstein and Naturalism; Chapter Eight Naturalism and ‘Turning Our Whole Inquiry Around’; Chapter Nine Liberal Naturalism: Wittgenstein and McDowell; Chapter Ten ‘Recognizing the Ground That Lies before Us as Ground’: McDowell on How to Read the Philosophical Investigations; Chapter Eleven Grammar in the Philosophical Investigations; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

This book brings together 11 papers by Marie McGinn—written between 1998 and 2014—all of which concern Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Engaging in fruitful and original ways with many central topics in Wittgenstein's scholarship, they cannot but stimulate any reader to pause and think about the issues concerned. On the whole, the essays may be seen as articulating an overarching view, revolving around McGinn's ascription to Wittgenstein of a ‘highly distinctive form of naturalism’ (vii),1 which she ties to Wittgenstein's remark that ‘what we are supplying are really remarks on the natural history of human beings’ (PI, §415). This naturalism does not concern nature as it appears ‘in the controlled and artificial conditions of the laboratory experiment’ (128), but nature is the environment in which our daily lives are embedded - Philosophical Investigations 2022; Scepticism and Naturalism: Essays on the Later Philosophy Marie McGinn, Wittgenstein; Wim Vanrie Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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