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Culture and Value
by Ludwig Wittgenstein (Translator: Peter Winch)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (1984-05-15)
ISBN: 0226904350
EAN: 9780226904351
Dewy Decimal #: 192
Paperback: 195 pages
SKU: 40-WRYV-FLST
Condition: As New
Comments: Small smudge on outside edge of first 3 pages, otherwise book has no issues. Tight binding. Unmarked pages. Shiny softcover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Peter Winch's translation of Wittgenstein's remarks on culture and value presents all entries chronologically, with the German text alongside the English and a subject index for reference.
"It was Wittgenstein's habit to record his thoughts in sequences of more or less closely related 'remarks' which he kept in notebooks throughout his life. The editor of this collection has gone through these notebooks in order to select those 'remarks' which deal with Wittgenstein's views abou the less technical issues in his philosophy. So here we have Wittgenstein's thoughts about religion, music, architecture, the nature of philosophy, the spirit of our times, genius, being Jewish, and so on. The work is a masterpiece by a mastermind."—Leonard Linsky
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Customer Reviews
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Minor work by our greatest psychologist
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-01-18
This is Wittgenstein's least interesting book, being only random notes dealing with art, music, religion and other areas of culture, taken from his notebooks over the course of his life. But W is never dull and it's a measure of the awe in which he is held that this book was even published. I can't imagine publishing such a book by anyone else,--certainly no philosopher.
Those interested in W should go to nearly any of the other 20,000 odd pages of his works (but NOT the Tractatus!)- but those with little acquaintance be forewarned, though W may seem a shallow tepid pool, if you jump in you may never stop swimming. You might wish to consult my other reviews such as that of Hofstadter's "I am a strange loop" for detailed comments on W and his revelations on language, thought and reality. Nearly all of W's writings are contained on a searchable CD issued by Blackwell and available for about $100 from Intelex while his vast and largely untranslated nachlass costs about $1000 on CD and another $1000 for the CD's with images of the 20,000 odd pages of the original manuscripts. However, like hundreds of other psychology books, they are also available via interlibrary loan or on p2p.
Although I've never seen anyone say so, W was a history making pioneer in cognitive and evolutionary psychology--the first person (and arguably one of the few to this day!) to see the structure of our innate intentional psychology. As a philosopher (armchair psychologist), all of his research was thought experiments and introspection. It is an easily defensible view that he is the greatest natural psychologist to date and nobody has ever matched his talent for describing the mind at work.
Nearly all the meatiest items from his papers have been culled for other works, and mostly the dregs remain for this book, but I have selected a few comments that seemed to me of general philosophical interest.
``There is no religious denomination in which the misuse of metaphysical expressions has been responsible for so much sin as it has in mathematics.``
``People say again and again that philosophy doesn't really progress, that we are still occupied with the same philosophical problems as were the Greeks. But the people who say this don't understand why is has to be so. It is because our language has remained the same and keeps seducing us into asking the same questions. As long as there continues to be a verb 'to be' that looks as if it functions in the same way as 'to eat' and 'to drink', as long as we still have the adjectives 'identical', 'true', 'false', 'possible', as long as we continue to talk of a river of time, of an expanse of space, etc., etc., people will keep stumbling over the same puzzling difficulties and find themselves staring at something which no explanation seems capable of clearing up. And what's more, this satisfies a longing for the transcendent, because, insofar as people think they can see `the limits of human understanding', they believe of course that they can see beyond these.``
``Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up 'whats that?` It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said `this is a man', 'this is a house', etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks `whats this then?'
'' A curious analogy could be based on the fact that even the hugest telescope has to have an eyepiece no bigger than the human eye.''
''The power of language has to make everything look the same, which is most glaringly evident in the dictionary and which makes the personification of time possible: something no less remarkable than would have been making divinities of the logical constants.``
``Philosophers say 'after death a timeless state will begin', or: 'at death a timeless state begins', and do not notice that they have used the words 'after', and 'it'and 'begins' in a temporal sense and that temporality is embedded in their grammar.``
''The queer resemblance between a philosphical investigation and (perhaps especially in mathematics) an aesthetic one. (E.g., what is bad about this garment, how should it be, etc.).
''Unshakeable faith (E.g., in a promise). Is it any less certain than being convinced of a mathematical truth? -But does that make the language games any more alike?''
``Nothing is more important for teaching us to understand the concepts we have than to construct fictitious ones.``
``It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.``
``Ambition is the death of thought.``
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Just A Tip
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-01-04
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Pay close attention to Witt's writings on religion. Not systematic or consistent, but some of what he says is really informative.
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Delightful
Rating  (4)
Date: 2005-11-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
A hugely enjoyable collection of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's comments about art, music, language, culture, Jewish life, religion in general, and a number of other topics. These writings were certainly never intended to be published, and one gets the slightly uncomfortable (though pleasurable) impression that Wittgenstein would not want them to be read. It's not in the same league as his more serious woks of philosophy, but it's an excellent way to understand his views on more earthly topics. The book is divided into dated quotes, and they're almost all interesting, and sometimes quite bizarre. I'll leave you with some of his insights:
"Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie."
"The problems of life are insoluble on the surface and can only be solved in depth. They are insoluble in surface dimensions."
"Genius is what makes us forget the master's talent."
"Genius is what makes us forget skill."
"Language sets everyone the same traps; it is an immense network of easily accessible wrong turnings. And so we watch one man after another walking down the same paths and we know in advance where he will branch off, where walk straight on without noticing the side turning, etc. etc. What I have to do then is erect signposts at all the junctions where there are wrong turnings so as to help people past the danger points."
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Brilliant overview of the man's concerns...
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-08-23
8 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
This collection of Wittgenstein's "remarks" written over a time period of forty years was first published as "Vermischte Bemerkungen" in the original German in 1977. These remarks are taken from his private manuscripts and diaries, which were finally translated into English in 1980.
As a vast majority of Wittgenstein's manuscripts or notebooks were written with no intent by the author for publication, it makes one wonder how the philosopher would feel about this book. He comments on a vast array of subjects from architecture, Shakespeare and music. And, of course, his philosophical musings, some remarks actually taken from his famous text, Philosophical Investigations.
It would be helpful if the reader had some previous knowledge of Wittgenstein's work and life before embarking on this text, however, I don't believe it to be absolutely essential. Surprisingly, numerous remarks throughout the text can stand alone on their own merit without contextualization. On the other hand, these remarks can also contribute to a greater understanding of Wittgenstein's philosophy, thus, in the end, Culture and Value is an excellent addition to the Wittgenstein Corpus.
I've come to understand that reading Wittgenstein is about a process of thought, a new method of thinking about our language and the world. Wittgenstein is not about a theory of reality but a process of thinking, asking different questions, never taking anything for granted, always pushing against conventional wisdom, pushing thought to its limits. At times these "aphorisms" can communicate as nonsense, ephemeral, disconnected, etc, but reading them slowly, immersing oneself into them, can produce some interesting results.
One of my favourite aphorisms: "Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself."
Or one of his descriptions of genius: "There is no more light in a genius than in any other honest man - but he has a particular kind of lens to concentrate this light into a burning point."
Reading Wittgenstein's remarks gives us a point of entry into his essential concerns as a philosopher and a human being. In fact the last remarks were written in 1951, the year of his death.
Culture and Value is that type of philosophical text that can be picked up occasionally over many years and one will continue to find stimulus for thought.
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Why is this still in print?
Rating (3)
Date: 2005-07-12
9 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book was published in 1980. In 1998 the editors and translator produced a beautiful new edition providing more context for the passages and an improved translation. It was published by Blackwell in the UK (ISBN 0631205713), but has still not been released in the US. Why? If you are really interested in Wittgenstein you should search that ISBN on Amazon, because there are occasionally used copies that you can order (at a premium) from abroad.
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