Topics Philosophers

Question Do any professional philosophers disagree in a huge way with Wittgenstein? If so, are there any works on the subject? If so, can someone please tell me the basic ideas behind these disagreements? Thanks!

Accepted:
January 25, 2009

Comments

Oh yes, lots disagree profoundly.

For a start, recall that around half of what Wittgenstein wrote after the Tractatus period was about the philosophy of mathematics (indeed, he wrote in 1944 that his “chief contribution has been in the philosophy of mathematics”). You can find a useful though rather charitable survey of his thinking on mathematics here. As you'll see, Wittgenstein's line is radical, to say the least, in its suspicions of standard infinitistic mathematics. Very few philosophers of mathematics agree with him at all. (Stewart Shapiro's excellent introductory book Thinking about Mathematics doesn't even mention Wittgenstein's view, he is so wildly outside the mainstream.)

Another point where (rightly or wrongly) very few philosophers agree with Wittgenstein is on the question of the nature of philosophy itself. Even if they find value in Wittgenstein observations about the mind, say, very many philosophers want to recruit the worthwhile insights into something like a high-level theory which at various points connects with, or even shades off into, more detailed psychological theories. True-believing Wittgensteinians think this is being "scientistic"; many others think it is just being sensibly naturalistic.

Question Do any professional philosophers disagree in a huge way with Wittgenstein? If so, are there any works on the subject? If so, can someone please tell me the basic ideas behind these disagreements? Thanks! Accepted:January 25, 2009

Question Do any professional philosophers disagree in a huge way with Wittgenstein? If so, are there any works on the subject? If so, can someone please tell me the basic ideas behind these disagreements? Thanks!

Accepted:
January 25, 2009