Wittgenstein on Criteria and Practices

Download or read book Wittgenstein on Criteria and Practices written by Lars Hertzberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-05 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the interpretive literature from the 1950's through the 1970's the term 'criterion' was thought to be a central key to the understanding of Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Later on, it was relegated from this place of honour to being one of a variety of expressions used by Wittgenstein in dealing with philosophical questions. This Element tries to account for the shifting fate of this concept. It discusses the various occurrences of the word “criteria” in the Philosophical Investigations, argues that the post-Wittgensteinian debate about criteria was put on the wrong track by a problematic passage in Wittgenstein's early Blue Book, and finally gives an overview of the main contributions to this debate, trying to achieve a reconciliation between the rival conceptions.