PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2015-16 academic
year – precise seminar content may change from year to year.
Reading list:
Primary text, L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, revised 4th edition, Eds. P. Hacker
& J. Schulte, Blackwell, 2009
Core secondary texts,
M. McGinn, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (Routledge Guides to philosophy)
Routledge 2nd edition 2013.
D. Stern, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: an introduction, C.U.P.: Cambridge,
2004
William Child, Wittgenstein, Routledge 2011
The Stern and McGinn are first choice recommendations for purchase for books covering the
Investigations; Child is the first recommendation for a book giving a broader discussion of
Wittgenstein. All three should be available in multiple copies in the campus bookshop prior to
the start of the module.
The following is a recent and simpler short guide to the text:
A. Ahmed, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Continuum, London & New York 2010
Biography:
B. McGuiness, Wittgenstein - a life, Duckworth 1988
R. Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: the Duty of Genius, London 1990
N. Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir with Biographical Sketch by G.H. von Wright,
OUP 1984
General:
W. Child, Wittgenstein Routledge 2011
J. Schulte, Wittgenstein: An Introduction SUNY Press 1991
A. Kenny, Wittgenstein Allen Lane Press, 1973
A. Kenny, The Legacy of Wittgenstein, Blackwell 1984
*D. Pears, The False Prison volumes 1 & 2, Oxford 1988 (available as e-resource)
P.M.S. Hacker, Insight and Illusion OUP 1986
P.M.S. Hacker, Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy; Blackwell
1996
R Fogelin, Wittgenstein 2nd edition Routledge 1987
*R Fogelin, Taking Wittgenstein at his Word, Princeton University Press 2009
J. Koethe, The Continuity of Wittgenstein’s Thought Cornell University Press 1996
Monographs & collections:
A. Ahmed, (Ed.) Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: a Critical Guide, CUP 2010
R. Arrington & H-J Glock, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: Text and Context,
Routledge 1991
*G. Baker & P. Hacker, Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, volume 1 of An Analytical
Commentary, Blackwell 1983, 2nd edition 2005 in two parts, Part 1 – Essays (pbk, 2009);
Part 2 – Exegesis §§1-184.
G. Baker & P. Hacker, Scepticism, rules and language Blackwell 1984
*A. Crary & R. Read (eds.) The new Wittgenstein, Routledge 2000
C. Diamond, The Realistic Spirit; MIT Press 1991
Glock H. J. (ed.) Wittgenstein: A Critical Reader Oxford: Blackwell, 2001
P. Hacker, Insight and Illusion OUP 1984
R. Haller & J. Brandl (Eds.), Wittgenstein: Towards a Reevaluation, proceedings of 14th
Wittgenstein Symposium, Verlag Holder- Pichler- Tempsky 1990
H. Sluga & D. Stern (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein, CUP 1996
*S. Kripke, Wittgenstein on rules and private language, Blackwell 1981
M. Luntley, Wittgenstein: Meaning and Judgement, Oxford: Blackwell 2003
M. Luntley, Wittgenstein: Opening Investigations, Oxford: Blackwell 2015
C. McGinn, Wittgenstein on Meaning Blackwell 1984
A. Miller & C. Wright (eds.), Rule-Following and Meaning, London: Acumen, 2002
S. Mulhall, On Being in the World Routledge 1990
S. Mulhall, Wittgenstein’s Private Language, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2007
*D. Pears, The False Prison volumes 1 & 2, Oxford 1988
*D. Pears, Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy Clarendon Press: Oxford, 2006
(available as e-resource)
D. Bloor, Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions, Routledge 1997
K. Puhl (ed.) Meaning Scepticism, De Gruyter 1991
D. Stern, Wittgenstein on Mind and Language, Cambridge University Press 1994
J. Schulte, Experience and Expression: Wittgenstein’s philosophy of psychology OUP 1993
T. Thornton, Wittgenstein on Thought and Language, Edinburgh University Press
1998 M. Williams, Blind Obedience Routledge, Abingdon & New York, 2010
Essays
R. Arrington, ‘Making contact in language: the harmony between thought and reality’, in
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: Text and Context, Routledge 1991
Eds. Arrington & Glock, pp.175-202
P. Boghossian, ‘The rule-following considerations’ Mind XCVIII 1989, 507-50 (in Miller &
Wright)
M. Forster, ‘Wittgenstein on family resemblance concepts’, in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical
Investigations: a Critical Guide, Cambridge: C.U.P., ed. A. Ahmed, 2010
H. Ginsborg, ‘Primitive Normativity and Scepticism about Rules’, Journal of Philosophy Vol
CVIII, No. 5, May 2011, pp.227-54.
W. Goldfarb, ‘I want you to bring me a slab: Remarks on the opening sections of the
Philosophical Investigations’, Synthese 26 1983
W. Goldfarb, ‘Kripke on Wittgenstein on Rules’, Journal of Philosophy, pp.471-88. (in Miller &
Wright)
W. Goldfarb, ‘Wittgenstein, Mind & Scientism’, Journal of Philosophy 1989, 635-42
W. Goldfarb, ‘Wittgenstein on understanding’ in Midwest Studies in Philosophy Vol XVII:
The Wittgenstein Legacy Eds. French et.al. 1992, 109-22
W. Huemer, ‘The Transition from Causes to Norms: Wittgenstein on Training’, Grazer
Philosophische Studien, 71, 2006, 205-225.
M. Luntley, ‘The transcendental grounds of meaning and the place of silence’ in Meaning
Scepticism ed. K. Puhl, de Gruyter, Berlin & New York, 1991 Puhl (ed.), 170-88
M. Luntley, ‘Patterns, particularism and seeing the similarity’ Philosophical Papers 31, 2002,
pp. 271-91.
M. Luntley, ‘Teaching and Learning’ Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40, 2008, 695-711.
M. Luntley, ‘On the teaching and learning of words’, Wittgenstein’s Enduring
Argument, eds. Zamuner & Levy, Routledge: London & Boston, 2009, 135-55.
M. Luntley, ‘What’s Doing? Activity, naming and Wittgenstein’s response to Augustine’ in
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: a Critical Guide, Cambridge: C.U.P.,
ed. A. Ahmed, 2010, pp. 30-48
J. McDowell, ‘Criteria, defeasibility and knowledge’ Proceedings of the British Academy
LXVIII, 1982
J. McDowell,’ Wittgenstein on following a rule’ Synthese 58 1984 (in Miller & Wright, also
in McDowell’s Collected Papers vol II)
J. McDowell, ‘Meaning and Intentionality in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy’ in Midwest
Studies in Philosophy Vol XVII: The Wittgenstein Legacy Eds. French et.al. 1992, 4052
J. McDowell, ‘Intentionality and Interiority in Wittgenstein: Comment on Crispin Wright’ in
Puhl ed. 148-169
P. Pettit, ‘The reality of rule-following’, Mind XCIX 1990, 1-22. (in Miller & Wright)
E. Picardi, ‘Concepts and primitive language games’, Wittgenstein’s Enduring Argument, eds.
Zamuner & Levy, Routledge: London & Boston, 2009, 109-134
B. Stroud, ‘Wittgenstein on meaning, understanding and community’ in Haller & Brandl,
1990, pp.27-36
B. Stroud, ‘Mind, meaning and practice’ in Sluga & Stern, 1996, 296-319
Stroud, B. (2001) ‘Private Objects, Physical Objects, and Ostension’ in D. Charles &
W. Child (eds.) Wittgensteinian Themes: essays in honour of David Pears Oxford:
Oxford University Press, reprinted in Stroud (2002), pp.213-232.
Stroud, B. (2002) Meaning, Understanding, and Practice: Philosophical Essays
Oxford: Clarendon Press
H. Sluga, ‘Whose house is that? Wittgenstein on the self’ in Sluga & Stern, 1996, 320-53
D. Stern, ‘Wittgenstein’s critique of referential theories of meaning and the paradox of
ostension, Philosophical Investigations §§26-48’, Wittgenstein’s Enduring Argument,
eds. Zamuner & Levy, Routledge: London & Boston, 2009, 179-208.
M. Williams, ‘Blind obedience: rules, community and the individual’ in Meaning Scepticism
ed. K. Puhl, de Gruyter, Berlin & New York, 1991, 93-125
M. Williams, ‘The significance of learning in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy’, Canadian
Journal of Philosophy 24 1994, 173-204
Williams, M (2002) Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning:Towards a Social Conception of
Mind London: Routledge
Williams, M. (2010) Blind Obedience: paradox and learning in the later Wittgenstein
London & New York: Routledge
Williams, M. (2011) ‘Master and Novice in the Later Wittgenstein’, American
Philosophical Quarterly 48 No.2 199-211
Williams, M. (2013) ‘The Builders’, Proceedings of the 34th International Wittgenstein
Conference
C. Wright, ‘Kripke’s account of the argument against private language’ Journal of Philosophy 81
1984, 759-78
C. Wright, ‘Wittgenstein’s later philosophy of mind: sensation, privacy and intention’, Journal of
Philosophy in Puhl ed. 1991 126-47