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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book began as a dissertation written in the philosophy department at Northwestern University from 1995 to 1998. Thanks are first due to the dissertation committee that supervised my work during those years: Meredith Williams, Michael Williams, Arthur Fine, and Joan Weiner. I am greatly indebted to all of them for their careful reading of my work and for being always both critical and supportive. But my greatest debt is to Meredith Williams, who chaired the dissertation from which this book originated and to whom I owe everything I know about Wittgenstein. Her work on Wittgenstein has always been and continues to be an inspiration for my own. I could not have written this book without the support I have received from my colleagues at Vanderbilt University in the last two years. I am immensely grateful to the department of philosophy for providing the most stimulating intellectual environment one can hope for and to all its members for giving me their continued and enthusiastic support and for taking the time to read the manuscript. I am thankful for the comments of Professor Lenn Goodman on a draft of chapters 1 and 2 and for the careful critical remarks of Professor Jeffrey Tlumak on a complete draft of the manuscript (especialy his detailed criticisms of chapter 4). Special thanks go to Professor Michael Hodges, my colleague and chair, for numerous conversations on Wittgenstein, for attending my seminar on Wittgenstein in 1999, and for reading and commenting on drafts of the book (especially those of chapters 1 and 6). Finally, the person who is most directly responsible for the completion of this book is my mentor, Professor John Lachs, who has always been extremely enthusiastic about my work and has given me invaluable guidance. He was the first person to read a complete draft of the manuscript and had it not been for his encouragement, I would not have kept working on it. It was comforting to know that I could always count ix on his generous help. I am also grateful to John for suggesting that I submit the manuscript to the State University of New York Press. Drafts of parts of the manuscript were read at professional meetings under the following titles: “The Role of the Community: Contextualism and Quietism in Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy” (Pacific APA Meeting in Albuquerque, 2000); “The Possibility of ‘Logically Alien Thought’ in Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy” (Central APA Meeting in Chicago, 2000); and “Verificationism and Inferentialism in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy” (Pacific APA Meeting in San Francisco, 2001). I am thankful for the comments I received at these presentations. On a personal note, I also want to express my gratitude to my family in Spain and to my friends both in Spain and here (they know who they are). Without their emotional support I would not have survived in exile. It is only thanks to them that I retained my sanity while writing this book. x Acknowledgments ...

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