Wittgenstein’s Metaphysics

Wittgenstein’s Metaphysics offers an interpretation of the fundamental ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It takes issue with the conventional view that after 1930 Wittgenstein rejected the philosophy of the Tractatus and developed a wholly new conception of philosophy. By tracing the evolution of Wittgenstein’s ideas Cook shows that they are neither as original nor as difficult as is often supposed. Wittgenstein was essentially an empiricist, and the difference between his early views (as set forth in the Tractatus) and the later views (as expounded in the Philosophical Investigations) lies chiefly in the fact that after 1930 he replaced his version of reductionism with something subtler. Nevertheless, he ended where he began, as an empiricist armed with a theory of meaning.

• Wittgenstein is enormously popular and influential • This book offers a radical new interpretation of Wittgenstein, showing that Wittgenstein did not recant his earlier philosophy in the way normally supposed

Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. From Idealism to Pure Realism: 1. Wittgenstein’s philosophical beginnings; 2. Neutral monism; 3. The ‘objects’ of the Tractatus; 4. The essence of the world can be shown but not said; 5. What the solipsist means is quite correct; 6. Pure realism and the elimination of private objects; Part II. The Metaphysics of Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy: 7. Wittgenstein’s phenomenalism; 8. A new philosophical method; 9. Wittgenstein’s behaviourism; 10. Wittgenstein and Kohler; Part III. Causation and Science in a Phenomenal World: 11. Hume on causation; 12. Wittgenstein’s Humean view of causation; 13. The problem of induction; Part IV. Logical Possibilities and the Possibility of Knowledge: 14. Logical possibilities and philosophical method; 15. The search for a phenomenalist’s theory of knowledge; Part V. The Past, Memory, and the Private Language Argument: 16. Memory, tenses and the past; 17. Wittgenstein’s analysis of mental states and powers; 18. Following a rule; 19. The private language argument; 20. Names of sensations and the use theory of meaning; Name index; Subject index.