North American Wittgenstein Society, Links Page

A search on Google, Altavista, Dogpile, Yahoo, or Ask will provide you with a good start, and more, much more, than you want to know about Wittgenstein. This list, after a brief section on basic materials, presents those links most relevant to current and upcoming philosophical issues regarding Wittgenstein and his place in the philosophical landscape, in particular links relevant to unresolved issues regarding methods.

• Basic Materials
• , Stanford's Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Wittgenstein, by Duncan J. Richter, http://www.iep.utm.edu/w/wittgens.htm
• Wikipedia entry, emphasizing a gossipy biography and links to articles on works, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein
• Book: Wittgenstein's Conception of Philosophy, by K. T. Fann (U California Press: 1968) Out of print, but available from used markets like Powell's Books (no relation to jwp) or ABE
• The horse's mouth: We don't agree on the best way to introduce Wittgenstein to new readers. Some of the works below by others, such as Bouwsma's essay on W's The Blue Book or Fann's book, might be better for some. But if you are a beginner, you don't know yet. Try reading The Blue Book or Philosophical Investigations.


• Ordinary Language Methods:
• Accounts of the methods at issue:
• "Wittgenstein's Blue Book" by O.K. Bouwsma, in Philosophical Papers, (University of Nebraska Press, 1968). See also in that volume "The Terms of Ordinary Language Are . . ."
• Frank Ebersole, Introduction to second editions of his books:
  • Things We Know,
  • Meaning and Saying,
  • Knowing
• jwp's "Wittgenstein's Accomplishment Is Most Importantly One of Method" (Issue Introduction, Vol. 1, No. 2, of Essays in Philosophy, a web-based philosophy journal found at www.humboldt.edu/~essays; General Editor, Michael F. Goodman): available from their archives at http://www.humboldt.edu/ ~essays/introv1n2.html
• Objections to the methods at issue; responses:
  • Gellner's Words and Things
  • Uschanov's response: "The Strange Death of Ordinary Language Philosophy"
  • Searle's "assertion fallacy"
  • Discussion: Ebersole's "Knowing and Saying"
  • Paul Grice's "conversational implicature" (and Fogelin's summary)
  • Ebersole's "Does It Look the Color It Is?" in
  • Discussions
    John Cook, "The Fate of Ordinary Language Philosophy"
    in the journal Philosophical Investigations
  • Philosophy is like science
    (an assumption to this effect underlies Searle's and Grice's objections as well)
  • For example, Geoffrey Pullum
  • Jerry Fodor, The Language of Thought, (MIT, 1974); (Later lectures)
  • Discussions

Links to various philosophers' books or websites

• Uschanov's Icy Frigidaire--includes a formidable and selective list of annotated links to these same topics.
• Eike van Savigny
• Merrill Ring
• Jeffrey Johnson
• Austrian Wittgenstein Society
• Frank Ebersole's books
• John L. Cook's books
• O.

Journals
Because many journal referees rightly take Wittgenstein and others using ordinary language methods to be undermining traditional philosophical problems and methods, it has been difficult to find venues for publishing articles which use those methods. The journals below have at times published such articles routinely rather than as exceptions.
Some university libraries provide subscription services (such as JSTOR with articles older than five years, Project Muse from Johns Hopkins, Ingenta, and others) which allow full-text access to articles. Some articles can be found posted to the web via a search on the title. Some authors provide articles or drafts of articles via e-mail, or post drafts to their websites.

• Philosophical Investigations was founded by Fred Mosedale, then edited by D.Z. Phillips beginning when Blackwell took over production and distribution. Phillips has recently retired from the editorship. Mosedale published many remarkable pieces, after which the journal has gone downhill.
• Inquiry, in Oslo, especially under the editorship of Alistair Hanney from ____ to ____.
• Mind, under the editorship of Gilbert Ryle, from _______ to _______.
• Philosophy, at the University of St. Andrews, especially under the editorship of Renford Bambrough, from ______ to ________.

North American Wittgenstein Society home page

J. W. Powell home page

Humboldt State University