Subject Area: Philosophy-Philosophy of Language

A HISTORY OF THE QUEST FOR PHILOSOPHICAL CLARITY FROM DESCARTES TO WITTGENSTEIN:
“We Can Only Understand What We Ourselves Have Made”

Roscoe, John
2011 0-7734-1563-7 292 pages
This work examines the philosophical positions of the canonical thinkers of the Western tradition from Descartes to Wittgenstein. It argues that philosophical discourse becomes confused whenever it has no explicit semantic basis.

Bouwsma's Notes on Wittgenstein's Philosophy, 1965-1975

Bouwsma, O.K.
1995 0-7734-8885-5 460 pages
Bouwsma's notes focus on sections of the Philosophical Investigations and Blue Book with the aim of helping a reader understand the unique insights which Wittgenstein brought to philosophy. Wittgenstein's writing is indirect, fragmented, and presupposes an occupation with specific philosophical problems. Established philosophers argue over the simplest interpretations, such as whether he was an empiricist, nominalist or skeptic. Bouwsma's work helps the reader appreciate Wittgenstein's insights. Bouwsma understands and can demonstrate how to apply Wittgenstein to the theories of other philosophers such as Descartes, Plato, and St. Augustine. This volume will be useful as a reference for philosophers and students working with the Philosophical Investigations and Blue Book.

Picture Theory of Language. A Philosophical Investigation into the Genesis of Meaning

Roscoe, John
2009 0-7734-4829-2 320 pages
This work is intended to challenge Frege’s Begriffsschrift as the foundation of philosophical work which either uses formal methods or is inspired by them. Whilst it is emphatically not a work of Wittgensteinian scholarship, it attempts the synthesis of the antithetical ideas associated with Wittgenstein, (1) the Picture-Theory, and (2) the language-game conceived as the ultimate level of explanation.

The Intellectual Crisis in the Life of Richard Rorty: The Shift from a Philosophy of Experience to a Philosophy of Language

Timm, Tobias
2018 1-4955-0665-7 156 pages
Dr. Timm unites two of the most engaging debates that are currently popular amongst Rorty scholars: what to make of the concept of experience after Rorty's linguistic turn and Rorty's awkward and contentious division between the public and private domains of life.