The Blue and Brown Books (Preliminary Studies for the Philosophical Investigations)
by Ludwig Wittgenstein
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These works, as the sub-title makes clear, are unfinished sketches for Philosophical Investigations, possibly the most important and influential philosophical work of modern times. The 'Blue Book' is a set of notes dictated to Witgenstein's Cambridge students in 1933-1934: the 'Brown Book' was a draft for what eventually became the growth of the first part of Philosophical Investigations. This book reveals the germination and growth of the ideas which found their final expression in show more Witgenstein's later work. It is indispensable therefore to students of Witgenstein's thought and to all those who wish to study at first-hand the mental processes of a thinker who fundamentally changed the course of modern philosophy. show lessTags
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Works with interesting concepts, and demolishes some very silly thinking about philosophy of language that people bring intuitively to the subject. On the other hand, he's a bit more than supportably behaviorist, and with annoying frequency he confuses something he can't find out with something Unknowable By Definition, ignoring that science has indeed taken what were once philosophical problems and turned them into experimentally answerable questions--cog sci, quantum physics and relativity being especially good on that front. That said, it's a great intro to Wittgenstein, and you have to remember that there actually were people who thought the way that his seeming strawmen did.
I suppose I should have read this before Philosophical Investigations, but this is still a worthy text on its own, and helps clarify some of the finer points of his intricate and complex ideas.
Covers language and philosophy of mind well. Need to reread P.I. soon.
Covers language and philosophy of mind well. Need to reread P.I. soon.
Definitely worthwhile if you're preparing to undertake a study of Wittgenstein. The book is essentialy a compliation of notes taken by his students based on his lectures. If you're thinking about purchasing this book, you should definitely be prepared for a weighty read, but not as intense as other works written by, or attributed to, Wittgenstein.
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Born in Vienna, Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was educated at Linz and Berlin University. In 1908 he went to England, registering as a research student in engineering at the University of Manchester. There he studied Bertrand Russell's (see also Vol. 5) Principles of Mathematics by chance and decided to study with Russell at Cambridge show more University. From 1912 to 1913, he studied under Russell's supervision and began to develop the ideas that crystallized in his Tractatus. With the outbreak of World War I, he returned home and volunteered for the Austrian Army. During his military service, he prepared the book published in 1921 as the Tractatus, first translated into English in 1922 by C. K. Ogden. Wittgenstein emerged as a philosopher whose influence spread from Austria to the English-speaking world. Perhaps the most eminent philosopher during the second half of the twentieth century, Wittgenstein had an early impact on the members of the Vienna Circle, with which he was associated. The logical atomism of the Tractatus, with its claims that propositions of logic and mathematics are tautologous and that the cognitive meaning of other sorts of scientific statements is empirical, became the fundamental source of logical positivism, or logical empiricism. Bertrand Russell adopted it as his position, and A. J. Ayer was to accept and profess it 15 years later. From the end of World War I until 1926, Wittgenstein was a schoolteacher in Austria. In 1929 his interest in philosophy renewed, and he returned to Cambridge, where even G. E. Moore came under his spell. At Cambridge Wittgenstein began a new wave in philosophical analysis distinct from the Tractatus, which had inspired the rise of logical positivism. Whereas the earlier Wittgenstein had concentrated on the formal structures of logic and mathematics, the later Wittgenstein attended to the fluidities of ordinary language. His lectures, remarks, conversations, and letters made lasting imprints on the minds of his most brilliant students, who have long since initiated the unending process of publishing them. During his lifetime Wittgenstein himself never published another book after the Tractatus. However, he was explicit that the work disclosing the methods and topics of his later years be published. This work, Philosophical Investigations (1953), is esteemed to be his most mature expression of his philosophical method and thought. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- The Blue and Brown Books (Preliminary Studies for the Philosophical Investigations) (Preliminary Studies for the Philosophical Investigations)
- Original title
- The Blue and Brown Books (Preliminary Studies for the Philosophical Investigations) (Preliminary Studies for the Philosophical Investigations)
- Original publication date
- 1958
- First words
- What is the meaning of a word?
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)This is closely analogous to saying that we can never know when in Fizeau's experiment the ray of light reaches the mirror.
- Blurbers
- Pole, David; Black, Max
- Original language
- English
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- 1,460
- Popularity
- 15,940
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (4.02)
- Languages
- 13 — Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 29
- ASINs
- 19