书名: On Certainty
作者: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Author), Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (Editor, Translator), G. H. von Wright (Editor), Denis Paul (Editor, Translator)
出版社: Basil Blackwell; (1969)
语言: English
ISBN: N/A
电子书格式：DJVU，推荐查看工具：WinDjView
Review
"The volume is full of thought-provoking insights which will prove a stimulus both to further study and to scholarly disagreement." --Alan R. White, Philosophical Books
Another Review from Amazon Reader "pierce_inverarity"
On Certainty is an excellent introduction to Wittgenstein's thought, especially for those who may be turned off by the terseness and impenetrability of the Tractatus. This piece is still terse by any standard but Wittgenstein's, and many statements are just clever one-sentence aphorisms that float by themselves, seemingly disconnected from the main thread of argument. Assertions are often left unproven, and the numbered-statements style can be tiring. Still, some numbered statements are actually several sentences long (!), and many actually go into detail -- this makes it is somewhat unusual among Wittgenstein's works. As is often the case with philosophers' works, a beginning student would be well advised to proceed into Wittgenstein's works in reverse chronological order. The early Wittgenstein -- of perfect edifices of language and logic -- may be better understood in light of the later Wittgenstein, of social constructs and language games.
Where does Wittgenstein come down on the question of epistemological relativism? In classical paradoxical Wittgensteinian fashion, he is both for and against, sort of. He admits that he is certain of some things, and that he often thinks that someone who is not certain of these things (e.g., "This is my hand." etc) as not "reasonable." But he does not go so far as to say there is an objective truth on a Platonic plane. Certainty is more personal than that (a la Michael Polanyi?), and in some deep axiomatic way, has to be taken on faith. We are ultimately certain of things just because we are certain of them, and, as Wittgenstein writes about the statement "this is my hand," any evidence we could muster to support such a statement is not as strong as the original statement itself.
Overall, this is a fascinating look at the interplay of language, belief, and epistemology, from one of the 20th century's master philosophers.
