Wittgenstein (PDF)

wittgenstein

"Sluga draws a fascinating picture of Wittgenstein as a situated thinker: brilliant insights into the cultural background mesh with an often original and always profound understanding of Wittgenstein's work, yielding an accessible and illuminating account of his thought."
Joachim Schulte, University of Zurich

"Concise, clear, and accessible, this sophisticated introduction covers an unusually wide range of central topics, including Wittgenstein's historical and intellectual context, his philosophical development, and the ethical and political implications of his work."
David Stern, University of Iowa

For his radical questioning, original thinking, and determination to reshape the philosophical landscape, Ludwig Wittgenstein is widely hailed as a giant in twentieth-century philosophy. Wittgenstein presents a concise, comprehensive, and systematic treatment of the Austrian-born philosopher's thought from his early work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to the posthumous publication of On Certainty, notes written just prior to his death. Renowned Wittgenstein scholar Hans Sluga first recounts events in Wittgenstein's life in order to illuminate the historical, political, and personal conditions from which his philosophical work emerged. After identifying some of the philosopher's key concepts and ideas in subsequent chapters, Sluga then reveals how the cultural and political changes that Wittgenstein and his contemporaries lived through mirror many of the dramatic events now happening in the twenty-first century. Sluga's original analysis goes on to illustrate vividly how Wittgenstein's thought may help us to face the peculiar problems of our own contemporary social and political existence. Illuminating and thought provoking, Wittgenstein offers ground-breaking new insights into the mind of one of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century.