Wittgenstein and Gadamer: Towards a Post-Analytic Philosophy of Language

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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

'This work achieves the goal of presenting a well argued and balanced comparison of these two great German language philosophers ... This is a book which students of Gadamer and Wittgenstein cannot afford to ignore and one which will hopefully lead to further productive engagement between their two philosophies.' -- Felix O Murchadha, National University of Ireland, in International Journal of Philosophical Studies
'Much illumination can be gained by thinking about the connections and differences between the practice of hermeneutics and Wittgenstein's unusual approach to language. Lawn is to be complimented for opening up this avenue of thought.' -- Alessandra Tanesini * Radical Philosophy *

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).