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Robinson Crusoe, Wittgenstein, and the Return to Society

From: Philosophy and Literature
Volume 32, Number 2, October 2008
pp. 278-292 | 10.1353/phl.0.0019

Abstract

Abstract:

From the island of certainty that is the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus to the everyday ethics of the mainland in the Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy traces a journey similar to the one etched into Robinson Crusoe's deserted beaches. In this essay I map out points contact between Wittgenstein's philosophy and Defoe's novel, thus providing a fresh glimpse at the philosophical underpinnings of the adventures depicted in Robinson Crusoe, as well as to Wittgenstein's philosophical motivations.



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