Table Of ContentWittgenstein’s Early Philosophy
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Wittgenstein’s Early
Philosophy
Jose´ L. Zalabardo
1
3
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Table of Contents
Contributors vi
Introduction 1
1. Russell, Wittgenstein, and Synthesis in Thought 15
Colin Johnston
2. Early Wittgenstein on Judgement 37
Peter W. Hanks
3. The Tractatus and the Unity of the Proposition 64
Stewart Candlish and Nic Damnjanovic
4. Simple Objects: Complex Questions 99
Hans Sluga
5. Reference, Simplicity, and Necessary Existence in the Tractatus 119
Jose´ L. Zalabardo
6. What Can You Do with the General Propositional Form? 151
Cora Diamond
7. Russell’s Merit 195
Michael Kremer
8. Naturalism and ‘Turning our Examination Round’ 241
Marie McGinn
9. Two Cheers for the ‘New’ Wittgenstein? 260
Brian McGuinness
Index 273
Contributors
STEWARTCANDLISH,formerlyProfessorialFellowinPhilosophyattheUniversityof
Western Australia, is editor of Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and Fellow of the
AustralianAcademyoftheHumanities.Hehaswrittenextensivelyontopicsinvolv-
ing,interalia,Wittgenstein,thephilosophyofmind,thephilosophyofaction,and
thehistoryofnineteenth-andtwentieth-centuryphilosophy.HeistheauthorofThe
Russell/BradleyDisputeandItsSignificanceforTwentieth-CenturyPhilosophy(2007)and
has contributed to theRoutledge Companion toNineteenth-Century Philosophy(2010)
and The Historical Turn in Analytic Philosophy (forthcoming). With co-author Nic
Damnjanovic,hehasalsocontributedtoHandbookofthePhilosophyofScience,vol.5:
PhilosophyofLogic(2007),TheOxfordHandbookoftheHistoryofAnalyticPhilosophy,
andTheOxfordHandbookofTruth(bothforthcoming).
NICDAMNJANOVICisAssistantProfessorattheUniversityofWesternAustralia.He
previously held a visiting position at the University of Colorado, Boulder, after
finishinghisPh.D.attheAustralianNationalUniversity.Hehaspublishedarticles
on thenatureof truth,metaphysics, andconsciousness. With Stewart Candlish he
also has forthcoming chapters in the Oxford Handbook of Truth and the Oxford
HandbookoftheHistoryofAnalyticPhilosophy.
CORADIAMONDisUniversityProfessorandKenanProfessorofPhilosophyEmerita
at the University of Virginia; she formerly taught at the University of Aberdeen,
SussexUniversity,andtheUniversityCollegeofSwansea.SheistheauthorofThe
Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind (1995) and editor of Wittgen-
stein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge, 1939 (1975). She has
written essays on philosophy of language, history of analytic philosophy, ethics,
philosophyofreligion,andphilosophyinrelationtoliterature.Manyofheressays
combinediscussionofphilosophicalquestionswithinterpretationofthewritingsof
otherphilosophers,includingWittgenstein,Frege,Anscombe,andMurdoch.
PETERW.HANKSisanassociateprofessorintheDepartmentofPhilosophyatthe
UniversityofMinnesota.Hisresearchisinphilosophyoflanguageandthehistory
ofanalyticphilosophy,withafocusontheearlyWittgenstein.Hispublishedwork
has appeared in Mind, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Nouˆs, Synthese,
PhilosophicalStudies,Dialogue,andErkenntnis.Heiscurrentlyworkingonatheory
of propositional content that abandons the Fregean distinction between content
andforce.
CONTRIBUTORS vii
COLINJOHNSTONisLecturerinPhilosophyattheUniversityofStirling.Beforethis,
he was a Jacobsen Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of London
InstituteofPhilosophy.Besidethehistoryofearlyanalyticphilosophy,hisresearch
interestsincludetruth,judgement,andthephenomenonofparadox.Hispublica-
tions on Wittgenstein include ‘Symbols in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus’ in European
Journal of Philosophy 15 (2007) and ‘The Unity of a Tractarian Fact’ in Synthese
156(2007).
MICHAELKREMERisMaryR.MortonProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityof
Chicago,wherehehastaughtsince2002.HereceivedhisPh.D.fromtheUniver-
sityofPittsburghin1986,andtaughtattheUniversityofNotreDamefrom1986to
2002. He has published numerous articles in logic, philosophy of language, and
earlyanalyticphilosophy, including‘Kripkeand theLogicof Truth’(1988), ‘The
Argument of ‘On Denoting’ (1994), and ‘The Purpose of Tractarian Nonsense’
(2001). His current research focuses primarily on Frege, Russell, and the early
Wittgenstein.
MARIEMCGINNisProfessorEmiritusofPhilosophyattheUniversityofYork.Sheis
the author of Elucidating the Tractatus: Wittgenstein’s Early Philosophy of Logic and
Language (2007) and the Routledge Guidebook, Wittgenstein and the Philosophical
Investigations (1997), the second edition of which is currently in preparation. She
edited, with Oskari Kuusela, The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein (2011). Recent
papers include contributions for The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein, and the
AristotelianSocietyPresidentialAddress,2011.
BRIANMCGUINNESSlearntandtaughtphilosophyatOxford(BalliolthenQueen’s
College) for forty years and then for thirteen years at the University of Siena in
Italy. AfterproducingatranslationoftheTractatusLogico-PhilosophicuswithDavid
Pears(1961)heworkedmostlyonWittgenstein,ofwhomhepublishedpartofalife
in 1988 (reprinted 2005 as Young Ludwig). A collection of essays, Approaches to
Wittgensteinappearedin2002,whileacollectionoflettersanddocumentsWittgen-
stein in Cambridge is now appearing revised and in paperback (2012, originally
2008). Hecontinuestoworkinretirement,whennotwritingpublicitymaterial.
HANSSLUGAisWilliamandTrudyAusfahlProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniver-
sity of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Gottlob Frege (1980), Heidegger’s
Crisis.PhilosophyandPoliticsinNaziGermany(1994),andWittgenstein(1911).Heis
alsotheeditor(togetherwithDavidStern)ofTheCambridgeCompaniontoWittgen-
stein (1996) and has written papers on issues relating to Frege, Wittgenstein,
Heidegger, and Foucault among others. He is currently working on a book on
politicalphilosophy,provisionallyentitledTheCareoftheCommon:TheConceptof
viii CONTRIBUTORS
the Political in an Age of Uncertainty. His interests cover awide range including the
foundationsofanalyticphilosophyandtopicsinpoliticalphilosophy.
JOSE´ L.ZALABARDOisReaderinPhilosophyatUniversityCollegeLondon.Hehas
published numerous articles in epistemology, philosophical semantics and Witt-
genstein’s philosophy. He is the author of Introduction to the Theory of Logic (2000)
andScepticismandReliableBelief(forthcoming).
Introduction(cid:2)
The present volume collects nine previously unpublished essays on the
philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, focusing mainly on his early work.
They don’t belong to a particular exegetical school. They approach Witt-
genstein’s work directly, seeking to understand it in its own terms and
by reference to the context in which it was produced. They cover a wide
rangeofaspectsofWittgenstein’searlyphilosophy,buttheycanbebroadly
clusteredasfocusingonthreeareas:therelationshipbetweenWittgenstein’s
account of representation and Russell’s theories of judgement, the role of
objects in the tractarian system, and Wittgenstein’s philosophical method.
ThegoalofthisIntroductionistoprovideabriefbutopinionatedoverview
ofsomeofthemainissuesintheseareas,andtosummarizethecontribution
to these debates of the chapters that follow.
1
. Judgement
Wittgenstein’sconcernwith Russell’stheoriesof judgementhaslong been
apparent.Itiswelldocumentedinthepre-Tractarianmanuscriptspublished
in1961withthetitleNotebooks1914–1916(Wittgenstein1979),anditalready
receives the prominence it deserves in James Griffin’s commentary, which
includes a section entitled ‘Wittgenstein’s Theory of Judgment’ (Griffin
1964: 112–24). However, the picture was hopelessly incomplete until the
book manuscript that Russell worked on in May 1913 came to light in
1967andwassubsequentlypublishedasTheoryofKnowledge,inVolume7of
Russell’s collected papers (Russell 1984). Only since this text has become
(cid:2)
IamgratefultoMichaelKremerforcommentsonthisIntroduction.
