Book Tip: Taking Wittgenstein at His Word

A Textual Study by Robert J. Fogelin

Taking Wittgenstein at His Word closely examines three concepts in Wittgenstein's philosophy: rule-following, private language and the philosophy of mathematics. The book is divided into two sections: rule-following and private language are examined in Part One, and the philosophy of mathematics is examined in Part Two. In particular, Fogelin stipulates that he is conducting a close textual reading, and - therefore - chooses not to engage at length with the vast secondary literature. The result is a book that asks, "what does Wittgenstein actually say on these topics?"

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Quote on the 'Social Theory' of Language Acquisition

From Dr Daniele Moyal-Sharrock's paper entitled "Coming to Language: Wittgenstein's 'Social Theory' of Language Acquisition" presented Solutions Focused Learning Conference in Budapest (6 - 8 May 2010)

The initiate must be "a biologically and socially adept human being ... susceptible to training ... [with] fundamental trust [in] the authority of the teacher ... [engaged in] socio-linguistic interaction ... transmissible ... through enculturation" and which transforms one's capacity to see, practice and conceptualise language in fluent and meaningful ways.