The False Prison: Volume Two (The False Prison)

This is the second of two volumes which describe the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy from the "Notebooks" and the "Tractatus" to "Philosophical Investigations" and his other later writings. This volume covers his later philosophy from 1929 onwards. It traces two lines of thought, one starting from the treatment of solipsism in the "Tractatus" and the other developing out of the early theory of language proposed in that book. The work as a whole is designed to fill a gap in the literature on Wittgenstein, and the doctrines and ideas chosen for close discussion are those which the author believes reveal the general structure of Wittgenstein's thought. Pears aims to relate the general to the particular within a clearly delineated framework, thereby hoping to make Wittgenstein more accessible to students of philosophy and to non-specialists. Volume I and II form a continuous study of Wittgenstein's philosophy, but they are designed to be read independently of each other.