Wittgenstein: The Way Out of the Fly-Bottle (Key Contemporary Thinkers)

I bought this book because of the favourable reviews. As neither an academic nor a philosopher, just an interested layman who is trying to come to grips with Wittgenstein (with some vague hope of a pin-fall one day), I have read many commentaries on what he says. Had I bought this book before most of the others, I would not have needed them. It is sub-titled `The Way Out of the Fly-Bottle' and for the general reader it is just that. Schroeder elucidates the elucidations.He is one of the few commentators who has taken notice of Wittgenstein's comment in the Preface to the Tractatus - `what can be said at all can be said clearly'. He does not mistake a fussy precision for clarity. He is unafraid of short sentences. His arguments are in everyday language and he writes in English, not in American. He knows that a brief list is clearer than a long sentence. He knows that repetition has a place. When he has a comment to make or an argument to engage in, he sets it out plainly: the reader will not confuse his comments with Wittgenstein's original.If you want to buy just one book as a guide to Wittgenstein's main themes then, obedient to the Tractatus' epigraph `whatever a man knows ... can be said in three words' - buy this book.

Those who have read much work by Wittgenstein will know that, despite its poetry and pithiness, it is not easily accessible for the uninitiated, and can even be obscure. With this in mind, Severin Schroeder's achievement in Wittgenstein: The Way Out of the Fly-Bottle is all the more remarkable. Interspersing the text with biographical details, Schroeder provides a comprehensive account of both Wittgenstein's early and his later philosophy, bringing out often overlooked connections between the two.The first half focuses upon the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, a fiendishly difficult philosophical text. Not only are its central claims explained with exemplary clarity, but Schroeder manages to show how even its seemingly most unsupported contentions follow logically from a small set of premises widely accepted at the time (and still upheld by some philosophers today).In the second half of his book, Schroeder examines the Philosophical Investigations and Wittgenstein's repudiation of his earlier philosophy. Special consideration is given to the link between meaning and use (sweeping away recent misconceptions and misinterpretations), Wittgenstein's reflections on the link between the mind and behaviour, the private language argument and voluntary and intentional action. However, Schroeder's most impressive achievement in this section is the way in which he takes one of Wittgenstein's most criticised views--that of the nature of philosophy itself--and shows it to be not only reasonable, but also central to understanding Wittgenstein's philosophy as a whole.In a concluding section, recent attacks on Wittgenstein's style of philosophising are evaluated, and shown to not have the power that they are widely regarded as having. At the very least, this book demonstrates that if one is inclined to ignore the work of Wittgenstein due to a general belief that his philosophy has been successfully rebutted, one's philosophy is being built upon a frail foundation.This book is highly recommended for students of Wittgenstein, but due to its highly readable style it would also be suitable for anyone with a merely passing interest in philosophy.

I first became acquainted with W in the 1970s, and have been looking for a comprehensive yet accessible explanation of his two central works ever since. There's lots of good stuff out there--e.g., Janik and Toulmin's Wittgenstein's Vienna gives great context and Monk's bio is essential--but this is the first thing I've read that actually explains the Tractatus and the Investigations so that the key concepts are readily understandable. And Schroeder throws in biographical and historical material for context! This is the perfect tool for the curious layperson eager to understand the most important philosopher of the 20th century.

I was lucky enough to study with one of Wittgenstein's closest friends, whilst I was studying in the 60's. This book is one of the very few that really analyze his important contribution to the philosophy of psychology (or the other way round!) and Schroeder has really explained the method of Wittgenstein and his lack of any "School" of philosophy. I had always felt it needed some years of apprenticeship to realize the revolutionary aspect of Wittgenstein's but Schroeder describes it so well that I would put this at the very top of my list of books to comprehend Wittgenstein with if one is struggling with the originals. One gets the feeling of the evolution of Wittgenstein's method as he floats away from the Tractatus ideas. Lovely and readable book and not too esoteric but should satisfy scholars and self-taught philosophers alike.

Book was advertised as a clean copy with no writing or highlighting it in. The condition of the book was exactly opposite to that advertised. It had lots of writing and highlighting all over rendering the product worthless to me as I could not write my own notes.FYI: I do NOT order a book unless it is advertised as clean, with NO writing or highlighting in it.