The World and Language in Wittgenstein's Philosophy

By Gordon Hunnings

Subjects: Wittgenstein, Philosophy
Paperback : 9780887065866, 266 pages, December 1988
Hardcover : 9780887065859, 266 pages, December 1988

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Table of contents

Preface

Works by Wittgenstein

1. The Structure of the World

2. The Structure of Language

3. The Picture-Theory of Meaning

4. Language and the Projection of Reality

5. From Pictures to Grammar

6. The Grammar of Mathematics

7. Philosophical Investigations

8. Grammar and the World

Notes

Index

Description

This book explores the interrelated concepts of representation and grammar in the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Throughout his life, Wittgenstein was obsessed with the problem of the nature of language and the relationship between language and the world. His intellectual journey, one of the most compelling in twentieth century thought, is the detailed adventure told by Gordon Hunnings in The World and Language in Wittgenstein's Philosophy.

This book surveys Wittgenstein's elucidation of how the world is represented in language, including the posthumously published material of his middle period. Early in his career, Wittgenstein's answer to the problem explored the representational connection between language and the world through the analogy of propositions as logical pictures of facts. Later, his mature answer elucidated the concept of the world as a construction of logical grammar. Hunnings shows how these shifting images of reality reflected in language also mirror the changes in Wittgenstein's philosophy.

Gordon Hunnings is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Natal, South Africa.