Philosophical Investigations

Name: Philosophical Investigations
Author: Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

— 1953 —

“

Wittgenstein's second masterpiece, which dismantles his first.

The record

Time
An eveningA season
329 pages, about 7 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climb
Augustine’s account of learning words comes first, then a builder calling for a slab.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live by
In 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, 3 credit the plot and 11 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else does
Three writers read it against Wittgenstein’s earlier Tractatus, and Peter Hacker calls the two diametrically opposed philosophies.

on the duck-rabbit
“Wittgenstein uses perhaps the funiest example in all of philosophy, the duck-rabbit”
five stars · a book blog
on the idea of language-games
“one of the greatest advances in understanding the nature of human languages”
Peter Hacker · Five Books, 2018
on the preface
“a book written under the shadow of the destruction of a world”
a Substack review
on his mistakes
“so intense, so pure, so self-critical that even its mistakes are gifts”
Daniel Dennett · TIME, 1999

on the structure
“the book is incredibly challenging due to the lack of structure”
a book blog
on his style
“his style of writing can be a little too indirect”
Nigel Warburton · Five Books, 2021
on the ambiguity
“The ambiguity of what he writes about has scared me from treating him seriously.”
a philosophy forum
on the remarks
“some of the remarks I didn’t understand at all!”
a philosophy forum