Abstract

The first of a projected two-volume exegetical study on Ludwig Wittgenstein's later approach to philosophy, this work gives a definitive account of the emergence of several salient themes in his later thinking. Selected on the basis of their prominence within the whole corpus of Wittgenstein's later writings as constituted by the materials in his Nachla, the themes examined include his notion of 'metalogic,' his view of the heuristic role of the 'ideal' , his 'logical' view of signs, his 'linguistically relativistic' approach to meaning or signification, the notion of 'forms of life' and his broad perception of his later philosophy as a struggle against the dominant intellectual trends of our times. Many of these themes are demonstrated to have emerged both as a reaction to his own earlier views and as a critique of the views of several of his contemporaries . The findings of this study, which are extensively documented by disclosing Wittgenstein's later thinking within the concrete historical context of the flow of ideas recorded in his notebooks and typescripts between 1929 and his death in 1951, refute several popular misconceptions about both the development and nature of his later philosophy