Wittgenstein's There - Like Our Life

Copyright © 2003 D. Z. Phillips

Wittgenstein's There - Like Our Life

Editor(s): Rush Rhees, D. Z. Phillips

Published Online: 25 FEB 2008

Print ISBN: 9781405105798

Online ISBN: 9780470776247

DOI: 10.1002/9780470776247

About this Book

Product Information

About The Product

Rush Rhees, a close friend of Wittgenstein and a major interpreter of his work, shows how Wittgenstein's On Certainty concerns logic, language, and reality - topics that occupied Wittgenstein since early in his career.





  • Authoritative interpretation of Wittgenstein's last great work, On Certainty, by one of his closest friends.
  • Debunks misconceptions about Wittgenstein's On Certainty and shows that it is an essay on logic.
  • Exposes the continuity in Wittgenstein's thought, and the radical character of his conclusions.
  • Contains a substantial and illuminating afterword discussing current scholarship surrounding On Certainty, and its relationship to Rhees's work on this subject.

Table of contents

    1. You have free access to this content
      Frontmatter (pages i–x)

  2. Part I: The Philosophical Background to On Certainty

    1. Chapter 1

      On Certainty: A New Topic? (pages 3–5)

    2. Chapter 2

      Saying and Describing (pages 6–10)

    3. Chapter 3

      Concept-Formation (pages 11–15)

    4. Chapter 4

      ‘Seeing’ and ‘Thinking’ (pages 16–26)

    5. Chapter 5

      Thought and Language (pages 27–33)

    6. Chapter 6

      Picturing Reality (pages 34–39)

    7. Chapter 7

      What Makes Language Language? (pages 40–43)

    8. Chapter 8

      The Logical and the Empirical (pages 44–47)

    9. Chapter 9

      On Certainty: A Work in Logic (pages 48–51)

  3. Part II: Discussions of On Certainty

    1. Chapter 10

      Two Conversations with Wittgenstein on Moore (pages 55–60)

    2. Chapter 11

      Preface to On Certainty (pages 61–66)

    3. Chapter 12

      On Certainty's Main Theme (pages 67–72)

    4. Chapter 13

      Induction (pages 73–77)

    5. Chapter 14

      Wittgenstein's Propositions and Foundations (pages 78–92)

    6. Chapter 15

      Language as Emerging from Instinctive Behaviour (pages 93–105)

    7. Chapter 16

      Words and Things (pages 106–110)

    8. Chapter 17

      Not Worth Mentioning? (pages 111–117)

    9. Chapter 18

      Certainty and Madness (pages 118–124)

    1. You have free access to this content
      Appendix 1: Comparisons Between On Certainty and Wittgenstein's Earlier Work (pages 125–130)

    1. You have free access to this content
      Appendix 2: Some Passages Relating to Doubt and Certainty in On Certainty (pages 131–132)

    1. You have free access to this content
      Afterword: Rhees on Reading On Certainty (pages 133–182)

      D. Z. Phillips

    1. You have free access to this content
      Notes (pages 183–191)

    1. You have free access to this content
      Index (pages 192–195)

SEARCH