In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Leonardo. Vol. 11. pp. 74-85. Pergamon Press 1978. Printed in Great Britain BOOKS Readers are invited to recommend books to be reviewed. In general. on1.v books in English and in French can be reviewed at this stage. Those who would like to be added to Leonardo’s panel of reviewers should write to the FounderEditor , indicating their particular interests. Insight and Illmion: Wittgenstein on Philosophy and the Metaphysicsof Experience. P. M. S. Hacker. Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1976.321 pp. Paper. f1.75; $3.95. Reviewed by George W. Linden* This book is an historical survey of the development of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophic thought. Hacker places Wittgenstein’s analytic investigations of language uses into the wider historical context of such thinkers as Descartes, Locke and Kant. In so doing, Hacker emphasizes the strong, perhaps decisive, voluntarist influence of Schopenhauer on Wittgenstein’s later views. Differing from Copi, Black and others, Hacker sees Wittgenstein’s Tractotus as a search for a pure logical language based in realism. This early position held that most philosophic problems were nonsense since they were the results of errors in logicalform. According to Hacker, it was the influenceof L. E. J. Brouwer that wasdecisive.After attending Brouwer’slectureson intuitionist mathematics, Wittgenstein abandoned his pristine positivism and began to develop a more expressive and social theoretical approach to language usage. While still holding that most philosophic problems were conceptual, he now argued that one could eliminate much philosophic misunderstanding by illuminating different aspects of ordinary linguistic behavior. In so doing, he held, one would be able to show that one projects varying conceptions on the world and these projections could be traced to differing forms of life. Wittgenstein’smature view then became a constructivist-criteria1view of ordinary language. On the argument concerning a private language, Hacker believes that Wittgenstein was right in rejecting perceptual introspection as valid evidence for the self. However, since Hacker himself maintains that self-knowledge is possible, he rejects Wittgenstein’s non-cognitive thesis of avowals. Asclearly and well as this book is written, it will be of little use to artists. art teachers and aestheticians. Even though his viewsof language changed, Wittgenstein was consistent in all of his writings in maintaining that the world consists of facts; valuesdo not exist in the world. Hence he held a position of ethical noncognitivism and aesthetic ineffabilism. Art, he claimed, was unique and in the realm of the mystical. Nothing meaningful can be said of this realm. If nothing meaningful can be said, the only meaningful thing to do is to remain silent. The Human Experience of Time: The Development of Its Philosophic Meaning. Charles M. Sherover. New York Univ. Press, New York. 1975. 603 pp. Paper. Reviewed by Peter L. Young** This is a book of readings with accompanying commentaries. It would be unwise for me to recommend it to those who seek a general introduction to the topic of the concept of time in Western culture. It is of most value, as I found it to be, to those *Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. IL 62026, U.S.A. **St.Joseph’s Secondary School, Tenaru, P.O. Box 1I, Honiara, Guadalcanal. Solomon Islands. who here approached the concept of time from the point of view of a particular discipline, but find themselvesaware that such a topic has provoked much discussion over a wide range of disciplines. It is also a book that gives valuable historical perspective and background, and as this is the authors stated intention, he has succeeded in his prime task. As a book of readings, it iscomprehensive, beginningwith the Judaeo-Christian and the Graeco-Roman heritage in Western culture. From there the sources become interdisciplinary in their perspective: from Leibniz to William James and from Piaget to Reichenbach. In itscomprehensiveness,it will servethe task well of helping the various labourers in ‘that same vineyard’ appreciate the historical character of their concern. It will also aid students of the subject who are just beginning their researches, for it will provide them with a breadth of vision that otherwise only the most time-consuming reading and library hunting could achieve. In the commentaries the author succinctly sketches themes rather than...

pdf

Share