Wittgenstein on Internal and External Relations: Tracing All the Connections

✍ Scribed by Jakub Mácha

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 282
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Approaching Wittgenstein’s writings from a new perspective, Wittgenstein on Internal and External Relations focuses on how Wittgenstein distinguishes between relations that are grounded in the nature of their related terms, internal, and those which belong to them accidentally, external.
This original approach reveals the difference to be one of the most fundamental distinctions that Wittgenstein drew in his writings. Working chronologically, it summarizes the philosophical background against which the distinction emerged, addressing Hegel, Bradley, Russell and Moore. Dealing with Wittgenstein’s early and later writings, it distils definitions of the notions of internal and external relations and offers its applications, before concluding with the rationale for Wittgenstein’s method of analysis.
Making a valuable contribution to Wittgenstein scholarship, Wittgenstein on Internal and External Relations presents significant new insights into his relationship with Russell and Moore and shows how internal and external relations inform his entire philosophical approach.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface and acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
I Introduction
1 Wittgenstein’s method of analysis: ‘I’ll teach you differences.’
2 Why relations matter
3 What is wrong with the internal/external distinction
II Prelude
4 Hegelianism and British idealism
5 Russell and Moore
III Wittgenstein’s early writings
6 Definitions of the internal/external distinction in the early writings
7 The doctrine of external relations
8 The nature of simple objects
9 The picture theory
IV Wittgenstein’s later writings
10 Definitions of the internal/external distinction in the later writings
11 Intentionality
12 Reason, motive, and cause
13 Rules and their applications
14 Mathematics
15 Colors
16 The standard meter
17 Aspect-seeing and philosophy of psychology
18 Aesthetics and art
V Conclusion
19 Internal relations as imperatives
20 The maxim of no reflexive uses of internal relations
Notes
Bibliography
Index