Wittgenstein’s work, early and later, contains the seeds of an original and important rethinking of moral or ethical thought that has, so far, yet to be fully appreciated. The ten essays in this collection, all specially commissioned for this volume, are united in the claim that Wittgenstein’s thought has much to contribute to our understanding of this fundamental area of philosophy and of our lives. They take up a variety of different perspectives on this aspect of Wittgenstein’s work, and explore the significance of Wittgenstein’s moral thought throughout his work, from the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and Wittgenstein’s startling claim there that there can be no ethical propositions, to the Philosophical Investigations.
Introduction
Reshef Agam-Segal and Edmund Dain
1 Wittgenstein’s Moral Thought
Edmund Dain
2 Wittgenstein, Ethics and Philosophical Clarification
Oskari Kuusela
3 Moral Thought in Wittgenstein: Clarity and Changes in Attitude
Reshef Agam-Segal
4 Logic, Ethics and Existence in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Eli Friedlander
5 Logic, Ethics, Aesthetics: Wittgenstein and the Transcendental
Kristin Boyce
6 Sketches of Blurred Landscapes: Wittgenstein and Ethics
Duncan Richter
7 ‘What is Ethical Cannot be Taught’ – Moral Theories as Descriptions of Grammar
Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen
8 Perception, Perspectives, and Moral Necessity: Wittgenstein, Winch, and the Good Samaritan
Martin Gustafsson
9 An "Exclusively Self-Regarding" Ethics: Response to Sluga
Kevin M. Cahill
10 From Nonsense to Openness – Wittgenstein on Moral Sense
Joel Backström
Biography
Reshef Agam-Segal is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute. He held a visiting position at the University of Chicago (2007-2008), and taught at Auburn University (2008-2012). He specializes in Ethics and the philosophy of Wittgenstein.
Edmund Dain is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College. He has also taught at the University of Chicago (2006-2011) and Cardiff University (2001-2006), and held a visiting position at the University of Bergen (2014). His work focuses on interpreting and applying the insights of Wittgenstein’s philosophy in Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology and Philosophy of Language.
