In this book Saul Kripke brings his powerful philosophical intelligence to bear on Wittgenstein's analysis of the notion of following a rule.

Rhees draws on wittgenstein's writings and on several conversations with him to discuss wittgenstein's views on, Among other things, The separation of judgments of value from statements of fact, The nature of an ethical rule, The ways in which people work out their ethical problems, And the multifariousness of the phenomena we consider under the heading of ethics. (staff).

Recent books by Paul Johnston, D. Z. Phillips, Philip Shields, and B. R. Tilghman all depict Wittgenstein as centrally concerned with ethics, but they range from representing his main works as expressing and advocating a particular religious-ethical outlook to arguing that his work has no ethical content but aims primarily to clarify such logical distinctions as that between ethical and empirical judgments. All four books raise the question about the moral philosopher's proper role, and each suggests a rather different answer. (...) Via the discussion of these books, I argue that Wittgenstein's stress on diversity in the ways of human life, his notion of conceptual grammar, the idea of a perspicuous representation, his lifelong involvement with art and his suggestions about its connection with morality, and his preoccupation with aspect-seeing-all suggest new possibilities of rehabilitating the historically recurrent idea that the philosopher may be a moral sage. (shrink)

During the past decade no philosopher in the Anglo-Saxon world has been so thoroughly discussed, explicated and criticized as has been Wittgenstein. The Tractatus and the Tractarian period have been the subject of numerous articles, more than a half dozen books and commentaries, and an anthology of articles. Now Pitcher has collected some of the best articles that have been primarily concerned with the Investigations. Starting with Quinton's overview excerpted from his "Contemporary British Philosophy," and the important critical notices by (...) Strawson, Malcolm and Feyerabend, the anthology includes several important papers focusing on such themes as family resemblances, private language, other minds, and the philosophy of mathematics and logic. The anthology is one of a new series of Modern Studies in Philosophy under the general editorship of Amélie Rorty.—R. J. B. (shrink)