The New Wittgenstein

The New Wittgenstein offers a major re-evaluation of Wittgenstein's thinking. This book is a stellar collection of essays that presents a significantly different portrait of Wittgenstein. The essays clarify Wittgenstein's modes of philosophical criticism and shed light on the relation between his thought and different philosophical traditions and areas of human concern. With essays by Stanley Cavell, James Conant, Cora Diamond, Peter Winch and Hilary Putnam, we see the emergence of a new way of understanding Wittgenstein's thought.

Part 1 Wittgenstein's later writings: the illusory comfort of an external standpoint

1. Excursus on Wittgenstein's vision of language Stanley Cavell 2. Non-cognitivism and rule-following John McDowell 3. Wittgenstein on rules and platonism David H. Finkelstein 4. What 'There can be no such thing as meaning anything by any word' could possibly mean Rupert Read 5. Wittgenstein on deconstruction Martin Stone 6. Wittgenstein's philosophy in relation to political thought Alice Crary

Part 2 The Tractatus as forerunner of Wittgenstein's later writings

7. Ethics, imagination and the method of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Cora Diamond 8. Elucidation and nonsense in Frege and early Wittgenstein James Conant 9. Rethinking mathematical necessity Hilary Putnam 10. Wittgenstein, mathematics and philosophy Juliet Floyd 1. Does Bismarck have a beetle in his box? The private language argument in the Tractatus Cora Diamond 12. How to do things with wood: Wittgenstein, Frege and the problem of illogical thought David R. Cerbone 13. Conceptions of nonsense in Carnap and Wittgenstein Edward Witherspoon

A dissenting voice

14. Was he trying to whistle it? P.M.S. Hacker

Bibliography Index