The essays collected in this volume represent, in a revised version, the pa pers of the Wittgenstein Conference held in November 1989 at the Univer sity ofRome 'La Sapienza' to celebrate the centenary ofhis birth. They offer a systematic account ofWittgenstein's philosophy ofmind and contribute to illuminate his later conception of perceptive, emotional and cognitive lan guage. Some of the reasons why it seemed the right time to promote an am pIe confrontation ofideas on Wittgenstein's mature perspective are sufficiently c1ear as they derive from the need to sum up the state of research based on the availability of the Nachlaß and the publication in the last decade of a conspicuous quantity ofwritings dedicated to philosophical psychology; other reasons are more complex as they depend on the already noticed tendency in the recent epistemological debate to interpret Wittgenstein's provocative and controversial theses in a "perverse" way, in a way which has been used as a banner for epistemic relativism, subjectivism, and irrationalism. The intention of this collection of essays is to construct an image of Wittgenstein's thought, which is as faithful as possible to his philosophy of mind and language from both a theoretical and exegetical point of view. The book also strives to assess the continuity and internal coherence of the theses developed throughout the different phases of his research.

Klappentext

Wittgenstein: Mind and Language brings together a collection of previously unpublished essays which offer a systematic account of Wittgenstein's philosophy of mind and contribute in an absolutely new and original way to illuminating his later conception of human perceptive, emotional and cognitive language from both a theoretical and an historical point of view. The focus is on the fundamental categories of philosophical grammar, on the analysis of intentionality, of belief and Moore's paradox, on certainty and doubt, on will, memory, sensations and emotions, as well as on the theory of aspects and private language and the relationship with relativism and psychologism. In the recent literature there are undoubtedly numerous qualified publications dedicated to the themes of philosophical psychology as they emerge from Wittgenstein's Nachlaß and from his writings on this subject published in the last decade. This book, however, provides the essential points of reference of Wittgenstein's late treatment of psychological concepts in the context of the general features of his early philosophy of science and language and in the framework of the trends of his time. The book is of special interest to scholars and students, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, sociologists, cognitive scientists, logicians, historians of contemporary philosophy and science.

Inhalt
Wittgenstein and the Twentieth Century.- Wittgenstein on Philosophy and Science.- Wittgenstein on Mind and Metaphysics.- Wittgenstein's Alleged Metaphysics of Mind.- Le réel et son ombre: la théorie wittgensteinienne de la possibilité.- Wittgenstein on the Meaning of Logical Symbols.- On Following a Rule.- Fodor and Wittgenstein on Private Language.- Mentalesians and Wittgenstein's Private Language.- Intentionality in Wittgenstein's Works.- Intentional Reference as a Logical Relation: A Variation on a Theme in Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Bergmann.- Wittgenstein Between Philosophical Grammar and Psychology.- Notes on Phenomenology and Visual Space.- Disentangling Moore's Paradox.- Malcolm on Moore's Paradox.- Wittgenstein's Refutation on Scepticism in 'On Certainty'.- Was Wittgenstein a Relativist?.- Wittgenstein on Language, Mind and Mythology.- Emotion: Remarks on Wittgenstein and William James.- Wittgenstein and Memory.- How Ludwig Wittgenstein Would Have Reacted to Recent Changes in Psychology.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.