Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond

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MIT Press, 2007 - Philosophy - 409 pages

Cora Diamond has played a leading role in the reception and elaboration of Wittgenstein's philosophy. Diamond's contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship is distinguished by her striking and widely discussed suggestions about continuity between Wittgenstein's early and later writings. Her work in ethics, in important respects shaped by her study of Wittgenstein, has been similarly influential. The essays in this volume, by a number of distinguished philosophers, including Stanley Cavell, James Conant, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam, and Martha Nussbaum, explore groundbreaking interpretations of Wittgenstein's philosophy and attempt to demonstrate its significance for ethics, using Diamond's writings on these topics as a springboard and inspiration.

The book begins with essays that address Diamond's work on Wittgenstein, defending and further developing her work both on the Tractatus and on Wittgenstein's later thought. Additional essays take up Diamond's writings on moral philosophy, examining her concept of "the difficulty of reality," her view that literature as such presents us with rational moral instruction, and her work on animals and ethics.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
I Wittgenstein
27
1 A Recently Discovered Manuscript
29
2 The Cardinal Problem of Philosophy
143
3 Wittgenstein and the Inexpressible
177
4 Wittgenstein and the Real Numbers
235
5 Holism and Animal Minds
251
II The Moral Life
279
6 Companionable Thinking
281
7 Comment on Stanley Cavells Companionable Thinking
299
Ethics Contemplation and the Source of Value
305
Fontanes Der Stechlin and Literary Friendship
327
Bernard Williamss Characters
355
11 Humans Animals Right and Wrong
381
Index
405
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About the author (2007)

Alice Crary is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and author of Beyond Moral Judgment.

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