Wittgenstein

First published in 2005. The essays and replies in this volume represent, with some modifications, the proceedings of a colloquium held in Oxford in Trinity Term, 1979. With occasional exceptions, critical response to the Philosophical Investigations following publication focused on a limited range of topics - an unsystematic book was discussed in an unsystematic fashion. This book employs a different approach, one that interprets disconnected discussions of Wittgenstein's as united by a single underlying set of powerful arguments. Introduction Introductory Essay: Communal Agreement and Objectivity, Christopher M. Leich, Steven H. Holtzman; Part one Following a Rule: The Basic Themes; Chapter I ::, Gordon Baker; Chapter II ::, Christopher Peacocke; Part two Following a Rule: Objectivity and Meaning; Chapter III Rule-Following, Objectivity and the Theory of Meaning, Crispin Wright; Chapter IV ::, Gareth Evans; Part three Following a Rule and Ethics; Chapter V *Much of § 3 of this paper is adapted from my ‘Virtue and reason’, the Monist, 62, No. 3 (July 1979); I am grateful to the Editor and Publisher of the Monist for permission to use the material here. In revising the paper I read at the conference, I have been unable to resist trying to benefit from some of Simon Blackburn's thoughtful comments; but most of the changes are merely cosmetic., John McDowell; chapter VI Reply: Rule-Following and Moral Realism, Simon Blackburn; Part four Following a Rule and the Social Sciences; chapter VII Understanding and Explanation in The Geisteswissenschaften, Charles Taylor; chapter VIII ::, Philip Pettit;