Wittgenstein and Gadamer

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This is the first comparative study of the pioneering work on language of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Hans-Georg Gadamer. The book focuses on how Wittgenstein and Gadamer treat language in their accounts of language as game and their major writings on the subject. Philosophical investigations and Truth and Method, respectively. Chris Lawn goes on to offer a critique of Wittgenstein's account of linguistic rules, drawing upon Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, particularly his emphasis upon tradition, temporality, historicality and novelty. The text demonstrates how paying attention to such elements -- excluded by Wittgenstein's conception of rules -- in fact strengthens Wittgenstein's position from a hermeneutical perspective. Finally, Wittgenstein and Gadamer investigates the possibility of connection between Wittgenstein's focus upon lexical particularity, and Gadamer's greater concern for the universal and the general. A groundbreaking work of post-analytic philosophy, Wittgenstein and Gadamer brings the work of two major modern philosophers in to dialogue. It is required reading for anyone studying or researching the work of either philosopher, or the philosophy of language more generally.

Reviews

"Explores the Austrian and the German philosophers' view of language as Spiel, or play." -Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/4/05
"...until this book, there has been no book-length comparative study of the philosophy of language of these two figures...Lawn's work provides a useful discussion of the current literature on this matter, scant though it is, and nicely lays out some of the central issues in the consideration of the philosophy of language of each philosopher and their possible convergence." -Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, June 2005
'the book is most promising in identifiying where the "language games" of the later Wittgenstein end and Gadamer's hermeneutics begin. Lawn's arguements are commendable for thei clarity and accessibility, and the book is a welcome addition to the study of philiosophy of language in general and to students of Gadamer and Wittgenstein in particular.' ~ Kevin Aho, The European Legacy, Vol. 11 (3) 2006. -- Kevin Aho

Author Bio

Chris Lawn is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He is the author of The Philosophy of theHistory of Philosophy (Acumen, 2008).