Robinson Crusoe, Wittgenstein, and the Return to Society

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.