Reading Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations by Ross John J.;

Author:Ross, John J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2009-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1. Cf. Barry Smith, Austrian Philosophy: The Legacy of Franz Brentano (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1994).

2. TLP 5.62.

3. PI 251.

4. PI 308.

5. PI 265.

6. PI 270.

7. PI 304.

8. Cf. von Wright, Wittgenstein, 208-209.

The Grammar of Psychology

We have so far given an introductory overview of the major themes in the remarks up to roughly remark 316—close to half the remarks in part I. Much of the rest of the Investigations discusses psychological concepts, and many discussions in part II also address these topics. Here we must briefly address the construction of the work. As we noted in the beginning, there is a great deal of overlapping material between the last section of part I and part II. There is also something of a controversy as to whether what we have as part II really is intended as a separate section or was meant to be worked into the last section of part I.

Part II of the work is something of an anomaly. Apparently, Wittgenstein conceived of the Investigations in many different formats, but he never settled on a final presentation of the book. It seems that there were supposed to be two volumes or two parts. However the second part might have been intended to be on mathematics. It also could have been Wittgenstein’s intention to include a second part or volume on psychology. For some reason, Wittgenstein seems to have left no clear indication as to what was to be published or how.

Wittgenstein’s literary executors placed the book in its present format, but why they chose this particular presentation is not exactly clear. Two of the three, Rhees and Anscombe, are of the opinion, expressed in the editor’s preface, that Wittgenstein would have suppressed the last thirty pages or so of part I and worked the material in part II into its place. Unfortunately they do not explain in the preface why they think this is so. It does leave us with something of a contradiction—they put certain material in a separate part II but they don’t think there really is a part II. G. H. von Wright, the third literary executor, was of the opinion that Wittgenstein’s thought was taking off in a new direction. What we have as part II, he thinks, is part of a new phase, with the book Zettel being a new transitional work—or part of a trilogy.1 Perhaps this disagreement between the executors was settled by breaking the work up into two parts, with Rhees and Anscombe publishing a dissent in the preface. However, von Wright, who published a lengthy study on the composition of the Investigations, does not say anything other than he disagrees with Rhees and Anscombe on the idea that the work as is forms a unit.

It would be well beyond the scope of my book to try to settle this problem. Speaking for myself, I would say that von Wright’s assessment of Wittgenstein’s work has usually proved to be uncannily accurate. However, at present, I am more impressed by the continuity between the two parts of the Investigations.

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