The New Wittgenstein: A Critique

Wittgenstein, modernity and the critique of modernism

Wittgenstein, Carnap and the New American Wittgensteinians

James Conant, a proponent of the ‘New American Wittgenstein’, has argued that the standard interpretation of Wittgenstein is wholly mistaken in respect of Wittgenstein’s critique of metaphysics and the attendant conception of nonsense. The standard interpretation, Conant holds, misascribes to Wittgenstein Carnapian views on the illegitimacy of metaphysical utterances, on logical syntax and gram...

The Quest for Purity: Another Look at the New Wittgenstein

This short note takes another look at the ideas proposed by the 'New Wittgen steinians', focusing on a feature of the discussion these ideas have generated that hitherto seems to have received comparatively little attention , viz., certain assumptions about the conception of philosophy as an intellectual enterprise, including its relation to the sciences, that seem to be adopted by both the New...

A Localist Critique of the New Federalism

This Essay takes the recent federalism revival to rest, at least in part, on a commitment to a more localized form of decisionmaking. The notion that more governmental decisions could and should be handled locally seems to fit with the times. There is increasing philosophical skepticism about the existence of “right” answers, more comfort with the notion that democracy depends upon reasonable d...

Was Wittgenstein a Jew?*

In my mind's eye, I can already hear posterity talking about me, instead of listening to me, those, who if they knew me, would certainly be a much more ungrateful public . And I must do this: not hear the other in my imagination, but rather myself. Le ., not watch the other, as he watches me for that is what I do rather, watch myself. What a trick, and how unending the constant temptation to lo...