Wittgenstein and the Possibility of Discourse

This original critique of Wittgenstein’s analogy between language and games, written by one of the philosopher’s literary executors and closest friends, has now been updated to include two additional articles.

• Updated edition of this original critique of Wittgenstein’s analogy between language and games.
  
• Rush Rhees was one of Wittgenstein’s literary executors and closest friends, as well as being an outstanding philosopher in his own right.
  
• D.Z. Phillips was Director of the Rush Rhees Archive and the Associated Centre for Wittgensteinian Studies.
  
• Constitutes a major contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship and to philosophical debates about the possibility of discourse.
  
• The second edition includes as a preface Rhees’ article, ‘The Fundamental Problems of Philosophy’, first published in 1994.
  
• It also includes as a second appendix some of Rhees’ reflections of Wittgenstein, his teacher.

Note to the second edition vii

Preface: The Fundamental Problem of Philosophy viii

Note in editing xxi

Introduction xxv

Analytic table of contents xlv

Part One Philosophy and Language

I Plato, language and the growth of understanding 3

II “What is language 21

III The reality of language 33

Part Two Games and Language

IV Discussion and discourse 65

V Games, calculations, discussions and conversations 81

Part Three Beyond Wittgenstein’s Builders

VI Signals and saying something 97

VII Language: a family of games? 116

VIII Understanding what is said 130

IX Wittgenstein’s builders – recapitulation 151

Part Four Belonging to Language

X Conversation and institutions 173

XI Language and generality 181

XII Language, speaking and common intelligibility 210

XIII Philosophy, life and language 243

Appendix: On Wittgenstein 257

Rush Rhees: a biographical sketch 266

Index 276

Author Biography

Rush Rhees (1905-1989) taught philosophy at the University of Swansea from 1940 to 1966, where he was subsequently made an Honorary Professor and Fellow. Among his principal teachers he included Alfred Kastil, John Anderson, G.E. Moore and, above all, Ludwig Wittgenstein. He was one of Wittgenstein’s literary executors and closest friends, as well as being an outstanding philosopher in his own right.

Editor Biography

D.Z. Phillips was Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Rush Rhees Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales, Swansea and Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. He was also Director of the Rush Rhees Archive, Swansea and the Associated Centre for Wittgensteinian Studies. He co-edited ‘Wittgenstein: Attention to Particulars’ (1989), a collection in Rhees' honour, and was the editor of seven of Rhees’ works published posthumously.

Four years after the publication of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Rush Rhees, one of Wittgenstein’s literary executors and closest friends, began writing reflections on the masterpiece he had helped to edit. In this collection of his previously unpublished writings, Rhees offers an original critique of Wittgenstein’s analogy between language and games. The volume constitutes a major contribution not only to Wittgenstein scholarship, but also to philosophical debates about the possibility of discourse, and to why conversation is central to that possibility.

For the second edition, D.Z. Phillips has inserted as a preface Rhees’ article, ‘The Fundamental Problems of Philosophy’, first published in 1994. This paper gives a clear picture of Rhees’ view of the distinctive nature of philosophical questions and of the character shown in a deep pursuit of them. Secondly, Phillips has included as an additional appendix, some of Rhees’ reflections on Wittgenstein, his teacher. The book’s index has also been enhanced.