Wittgenstein’s Whewell’s Court Lectures contains previously unpublished notes from lectures given by Ludwig Wittgenstein between 1938 and 1941. The volume offers new insight into the development of Wittgenstein’s thought and includes some of the finest examples of Wittgenstein’s lectures in regard to both content and reliability.
- Many notes in this text refer to lectures from which no other detailed notes survive, offering new contexts to Wittgenstein’s examples and metaphors, and providing a more thorough and systematic treatment of many topics
- Each set of notes is accompanied by an editorial introduction, a physical description and dating of the notes, and a summary of their relation to Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
- Offers new insight into the development of Wittgenstein’s ideas, in particular his ideas about certainty and concept-formation
- The lectures include more than 70 illustrations of blackboard drawings, which underline the importance of visual thought in Wittgenstein’s approach to philosophy
- Challenges the dating of some already published lecture notes, including the Lectures on Freedom of the Will and the Lectures on Religious Belief
Table of Contents:
Preface ix
Editorial Introduction xiv
List of Editorial Conventions xx
Abbreviations xxii
Whewell’s Court Lectures, Cambridge 1938–1941 1
1 Lectures on Knowledge 6
⟨Easter Term 1938⟩
2 Lectures on Necessary Propositions and Other Topics 50
⟨Easter Term 1938⟩
Lectures on Gödel 50
Puzzle of Trinity College 57
Necessary Propositions 62
‘Absolutely Determinate’ 74
Continuous Band of Colours 76
Are There an Infinite Number of Shades of Colour? 77
‘All There’: Logical Necessity 78
Achilles and the Tortoise 82
Infinitesimal Calculus and Free Will 83
3 Lectures on Similarity 88
⟨Michaelmas Term 1939⟩
4 Lectures on Description 137
⟨Lent Term 1940⟩
5 Wittgenstein’s Reply to a Paper by Y. Smythies on ‘Understanding’ 190
⟨Lent Term 1940⟩
6 Lectures on Belief 203
⟨Easter Term 1940⟩
7 Lectures on Volition 254
⟨Michaelmas Term 1940⟩
8 Lectures on Freedom of the Will 282
⟨Lent Term 1941⟩
Appendix 297
9 Y. Smythies’ 1940 Paper on ‘Understanding’ 300
10 Preparatory Notes for Y. Smythies’ 1945 Paper on ‘Meaning’ 308
11 The King of the Dark Chamber, by Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the English of Rabindranath Tagore into the English used by L. Wittgenstein and Yorick Smythies, by L. Wittgenstein and Yorick Smythies 327
12 Comments Prompted by the Notes Taken From Wittgenstein’s Lectures on Volition and on Freewill, by Y. Smythies 336
Bibliography 348
Index 351
About the Author :
Volker A. Munz is Assistant Professor at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. He is the editor of Language and World (with Klaus Puhl and Joseph Wang, 2010), Mind, Language and Action (with Daniele Moyal-Sharrock and Annalisa Coliva, 2015), the author of Satz und Sinn. Bemerkungen zur Sprachphilosophie Wittgensteins (2005), as well as numerous essays.
Bernhard Ritter is University Assistant at the University of Klagenfurt. He has published articles on Kant and Wittgenstein and is the author of the forthcoming Kant and Post-Tractarian Wittgenstein: Transcendentalism, Idealism, Illusion.
Review :
'The book contains twelve chapters. The editors introduce us thoroughly to each and provide detailed information about the sources they have used. They also enrich the text with comments about similar or complementary passages in the Nachlass. . . . There is no doubt a great deal to be learnt from this book by anyone with an interest in Wittgenstein's philosophy.' -- Alois Pichler, Grazer Philosophische Studien 95 (2018) 589-603
“From time to time there is a treasure that emerges from the Wittgenstein chest. This collection of lectures meticulously edited by Volker Munz and Bernhard Ritter actually emerges from the chest of Wittgenstein’s pupil and friend Yorick Smythies.” - Nuno Venturinha, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, December 2019
