Wittgenstein's work is notoriously difficult to understand and, at least superficially, deals almost exclusively with obscure and technical problems in logic and the philosophy of language. He once asked rhetorically: "What is the use of philosophy ... if it does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday life?." This book explains how Wittgenstein's idea of the value of philosophy shaped his philosophical method and led him to talk and write about the abstruse questions he dealt with in most of his work.

This is not just another introductory overview of...