Philosophical Investigations Author: Ludwig Wittgenstein | Language: English | ISBN:
1405159286 | Format: EPUB
Philosophical Investigations Description
Incorporating significant editorial changes from earlier editions, the fourth edition of Ludwig Wittgenstein's
Philosophical Investigations is the definitive
en face German-English version of the most important work of 20th-century philosophy
- The extensively revised English translation incorporates many hundreds of changes to Anscombe’s original translation
- Footnoted remarks in the earlier editions have now been relocated in the text
- What was previously referred to as ‘Part 2’ is now republished as Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment, and all the remarks in it are numbered for ease of reference
- New detailed editorial endnotes explain decisions of translators and identify references and allusions in Wittgenstein's original text
- Now features new essays on the history of the Philosophical Investigations, and the problems of translating Wittgenstein’s text
- Hardcover: 592 pages
- Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 4 edition (October 12, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1405159286
- ISBN-13: 978-1405159289
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Editorial Preface to the Fourth Edition and Modified Translation.
The Text of the Philosophical Investigations.
Philosophische Untersuchungen.
Philosophical Investigations.
Philosophie der Psychologie - Ein Fragment.
Philosophy of Psychology - A Fragment.
Endnotes.
Register.
Index.
Even though Wittgenstein's German is nothing like Kant's, providing a good translation of his work is a challenge given all that one must bring into consideration. Anscombe's original translation had its merits, but it also had a number of frustrating flaws.
One of the many problems with Anscombe's translation of PI is her translation of both "hinweisende Erklärung" and "hinweisende Definition" as "ostensive definition," where the former is more literally read as "ostensive explanation" and the latter as "ostensive definition." See, e.g., ??27 and 28 of an earlier edition. And as one can see from Wittgenstein's discussion, there are times when he uses "hinweisende Erklärung" to mean "ostensive explanation" as opposed to actually ostensively defining a word, e.g., ?31. And sometimes he uses them together almost interchangeably, e.g., the last two lines of ?28. One of the most glaring cases of Anscombe ignoring the distinction is in ?6 where the German reads, "Dies will ich nicht `hinweisende Erklärung', oder `Definition', nennen...." and the English translation reads simply "I do not want to call this `ostensive definition'...."
One way this difference, and Anscombe's failure to track it, is important is that giving an explanation is a much more open ended activity than giving a definition in a somewhat similar way as the German word for "game," "das Spiel," is more open than the English word, since "das Spiel" can also mean the more open concept of play.
One small "problem" presented by the updated translation is that the changes make past expressions no longer so apt, e.g.
This is Wittgenstein's posthumous book. The original German is given side by side with the English translation by G.E.M. Anscombe, which has undergone many corrections for this edition. Philosophical Investigations, like the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus of 1918, is unconventionally organized. There are no chapters and no subheadings. Each numbered paragraph tells its own story. Large blocks of paragraphs deal with a single topic. For instance, the first thirty-eight paragraphs of Part I deal with the question of meaning. A given theme is treated at some length, dropped and is picked up again later on and in connection with another problem. This, plus Wittegnstein's unorthodox views may make the book difficult reading.
Wittgenstein's chief philosophical principle is that there are no philosophical problems. There are only philosophical muddles engendered by inattention to the proper uses of linguistic expressions. All of his main discussions in the book are general questions about language; not that language is the subject matter of philosophy but rather that an important, but not the only, function of philosophy is to clear away philosophical puzzles by tracing them to their source in linguistic muddles. Beyond the therapy lies the possibility of proposing different ways of talking, each of which, insofar as it is free of linguistic puzzles, may be a profitable way of looking at things analogous to "a new way of painting..." (p. 128, paragraph 401).
Wittgenstein's therapeutic method is best understood by seeing it in use. However, an inadequate idea of it may be conveyed by means of a general characterization. In the space allotted, I can do no more.
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