On Certainty

Written over the last 18 months of his life and inspired by his interest in G. E. Moore’s defence of common sense, this much discussed volume collects Wittgenstein’s reflections on knowledge and certainty, on what it is to know a proposition for sure.

Notes on the Contributors ix List of Abbreviations of Works by Wittgenstein xii Introduction 1 1 Wittgenstein’s On Certainty: The Case of the Missing Propositions 16 D.Z. Phillips Part I The Framework Reading 31 2 Why On Certainty Matters 33 Avrum Stroll 3 Why Wittgenstein Isn’t a Foundationalist 47 Michael Williams 4 Within a System 59 Joachim Schulte 5 Unravelling Certainty 76 Danièle Moyal-Sharrock Part II The Transcendental Reading 101 6 Wittgenstein and Classical Realism 103 H.O. Mounce 7 Wittgenstein’s ‘Kantian Solution’ 122 William H. Brenner 8 Wittgenstein, Global Scepticism and the Primacy of Practice 142 Anthony Rudd Part III The Epistemic Reading 163 9 The Contexts of Knowing 165 Thomas Morawetz 10 Wittgenstein’s On Certainty and Contemporary Anti-scepticism 189 Duncan Pritchard 11 ‘In the Beginning was the Deed’: Wittgenstein on Knowledge and Religion 225 Michael Kober Part IV The Therapeutic Reading 251 12 On Wittgenstein’s Response to Scepticism: The Opening of On Certainty 253 Edward Minar 13 Wittgenstein and Ethics: A Discussion with Reference to On Certainty 275 Alice Crary 14 ‘The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First …’: A New Reading of On Certainty 501 302 Rupert Read References 322 Index 329