A Wittgenstein Workbook by Christopher Coope, Peter Geach, Timothy Potts, and Roger White (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 551 A Wittgenstein Workbook. By CHRISTOPHER CooPE, PETER GEACH, TIMOTHY PoTTS, and RoGER WHITE. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970. Pp. 51. $1.75. Wittgenstein's philosophical works make notoriously difficult reading for the average undergraduate, yet so pervasive is their influence on contemporary philosophy, especially in the English-speaking world, that no philosophy major can afford to ignore them. This workbook, the fruit of five years of experience by members of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Leeds in teaching Wittgenstein to senior undergraduates , provides a promising solution to their problem. It contains some 18 topics considered to be central to Wittgenstein's thought, such as " The Picture-Theory," " Naming," " Truth," " Logic as the Mirror of the World," "Showing and Saying," "Scepticism," "Private Languages," " Following a Rule," "Meaning and Use," " Thinking," " The Mystical and the Ethical," "The Nature of Philosophy," etc. For use either as a teaching aid or as a guide to private study, each topic is provided with a well-chosen set of primary references, a select list of secondary readings, and a series of provocative questions designed not only to pinpoint Wittgenstein's cardinal insights but to weave them into a coherent theme so that the correct answer to each question leads naturally to its successor. The primary references are not only to Wittgenstein's two main works, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations, but also the Notebooks 1914-1916 which throw light on his early work, and The Blue and Brown Books and Zettel which perform a similar function for the Investigations. To counteract the popular belief that Wittgenstein's later philosophy involved the rejection of all or most of his early doctrines, the authors have selected their topics and questions in such a way as to show the continuity of his thought with respect to the core problems that concerned him throughout his philosophical career. To this end they have included among the primary texts references to Philosophische Bermerkungen which in an important sense links the Tractatus and the Investigations as well as to his latest work On Certainty. While occasional reference is made to Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics the authors in the main have tried not to become involved in his philosophy of mathematics where he does not show himself at his best. The secondary references are frequently to Frege and Russell, whose writings so often posed the problems Wittgenstein sought to solve, or to illuminating articles by those who studied under him. Especially helpful are the first two appendices, one of which cross-references passages in Russell's Principles of Mathematics that parallel the Tractatus (" It is clear that the unresolved problems of this work were more significant for Wittgenstein than 552 BOOK REVIEWS the solutions offered in Principia Mathematica ") (p. 7) and the other does the same for William James's Principles of Psychology and Wittgenstein 's later work. For, as the authors point out, "Wittgenstein regarded James as a classical exponent of the tradition of the philosophy of mind that he was opposing, and James's views are often alluded to, when he is not mentioned by name, in the Investigations and the Zettel." (ibid.) A third appendix, entitled " Whewell and Mill on Types," provides enlightening collateral reading for the topic " Meaning and Use." While teachers well versed in Wittgenstein's thought may disagree at times with the authors' evaluations, if not as to the importance of the topics, perhaps as to the felicity of the particular questions, they would hardly quarrel with their conclusion: " Our experience has shown that seminars based on the discussion of the questions here presented led to more effective participation that the traditional method of discussing a student's paper. We have therefore decided to expose our teaching method to the criticism of a wider public, and should be glad of any suggestions for improving this work-book." For that decision, this reviewer, for one, is grateful. The Catholic University of America Washington, D. C. ALLAN B. WoLTER, 0. F.M. Los "Fundadores" en la Filosoffa de America Latina. Bibliografias Basicas, VII. General Secretariat, Organization of the American States, Washington: 1970. Pp. 208. The division...