Philosophical Investigations (1953)

by Ludwig Wittgenstein (Author)

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▾LibraryThing recommendations

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English (8) Spanish (1) All languages (9)

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Try to read the first hundred paragraphs.

mdstarr | Sep 11, 2011 |

clothing of our language makes everything alike

kevinroney | Dec 30, 2010 |

I get the impression that philosophy is no longer offered in most UK universities, especially philosophy of this calibre. Having studied philosophy to first degree level back in the 1960's, I think the overwhelming thing about Wittgenstein, apart from the general difficulty of coming to terms with what he was attempting to do, is his single-minded quest for clarity. In this book he takes this to the extreme by rejecting his own first philosophical writings (The Tractatus...) and putting this work in its place. Not many people would have the courage to do such a thing. I think his name will live on. (

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comsat38 | Jul 16, 2010 |

Although less dominant now than when I was a student, Ludwig Wittgenstein's thoughts from the "Tractatus" to the "Untersuchungen" influence all my philosophical thinking. As a student I could only afford the English translation of the 2nd edn and it is now a much worn volume, and I was delighted to buy this new 3rd edition. Even 'though it represents the second revision of Elizabeth Anscombe's thoughts on the German text, it is good to be able to compare her version with the original German.

It is a book that can be read in three ways. Sometimes I will read it from cover to cover. Other times one can read just a group of sections on a specific topic, say the rules for use being the meaning of a word. Lastly I can light my pipe, sit by the fire and read a few sections at random - it always generates new ideas. In this it has an unexpected affinity with a volume of poems.

Wittgenstein is not everybody's cup of tea, but he is mine, and if one is open-minded, this work, along with the Tractatus and the Remarks on Mathematics, has something to offer to all.

By the way, although LibraryThing classifies this work as German philodophy, Wittgenstein, like several Logical Positivists, was an Austrian. (

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Landric | May 7, 2010 |

I found this book powerful when I first read it because I had just read the Tractatus and the contrast was challenged my mind. As I read the Investigations I questioned Wittgenstein's method, to the extent I understood it. This is worth returning to and thinking about over a long period of time. (

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jwhenderson | Oct 5, 2009 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Wittgenstein, Ludwig	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Anscombe, G. E. M.	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Philosophical Investigations

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1953

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The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today (1953)

Epigraph

Überhaupt hat der Fortschritt das an sich, daß er viel größer ausschaut, als er wirklich ist.

NESTROY

The trouble about progress is that it always looks much greater than it really is.

Nestroy

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1. Agustin, en las Confesiones (1.8): «Cuando ellos (los mayores) nombraban alguna cosa y consecuentemente con esa apelación se movían hacia algo, lo veía y comprendía que con los sonidos que pronunciaban llamaban ellos a aquella cosa cuando pretendían señalarla. Pues lo que ellos pretendían se entresacaba de su movimiento corporal: cual lenguaje natural de todos los pueblos quec con mímica y juegos de ojos, con el movimiento del resto de los miembros y con el sonido de la voz hacen indicación de las afecciones del alma al apetecer, tener, rechazar o evitar cosas. Así, oyendo repetidamente las palabras colocadas en sus lugares apropiados en diferentes oraciones, colegía paulatinamente de qué cosas eran signos y, una vez adiestrada la lengua en esos signios, expresabaya con ellos mis deseos.»

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Philosophical Investigations

Private language argument

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Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language

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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0024288101, Paperback)

Written by one of the century's truly great thinkers, Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is a remarkable--and surprisingly approachable--collection of insights, statements, and nearly displayed thinking habits of the philosopher's work on language, symbols, categories, and a host of other topics. Organized into nearly 700 short observations, this book is a treasure trove for anyone who needs to think carefully about objects, categories, and symbols, especially in relation to structured logic applications in computer programming.

The short (and sometimes aphoristic) observations in Philosophical Investigations allow the reader to ponder basic questions on what describes a category, how language works in everyday situations, and how symbols function to represent our world.

Originally a series of notes to himself as he lectured on philosophy, the book is a brilliant grab bag of thought and example. Often framed as a question ("How do I recognize that this is red?"), the philosopher provides short answers in a sentence or two, never more than a paragraph. (The second part of the book uses longer answers of several pages to develop its arguments.) An index lets the reader browse on topics of interest--such as language, concept, games, or naming.

Any artificial intelligence researcher looking to understand human language will be intrigued by Wittgenstein's ideas on how symbols and language operate. And for anyone who designs software with objects, this book's careful attention to thinking about what makes a good category demonstrates rigorous thinking about everyday objects and things. Philosophical Investigations is at times a strange and often wonderful book that reveals the thought processes of one of history's finest minds. It exposes the fundamental problems of using language as a means of teaching machines to think using words. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Theory of language and language games, meaning and symbols, concepts and categories, behavior, games (including chess), color, images and perception, grammar and language, sensations, theory of mind and thinking.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:18:10 -0500)

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This work represents Wittgenstein's distillation of two decades of intense work on the philosophies of mind, language and meaning. This edition is published on the 50th anniversary of Wittgenstein's death, and incorporates final revisions by Anscombe to her original English translation.… (more)