This book guides the reader through perhaps the single most important philosophical work of the twentieth century - Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. The author presents Wittgenstein's Investigations in a radically new light using short sections to clarify the main arguments, including the famous Private Language Argument. This is accomplished through the author's extremely clear and accessible writing style, bringing a new clarity to a reputedly difficult work. The author demonstrates the continuing importance of Wittgenstein's ideas to contemporary debates in cognitive...

In this vivid and incisive guide, philosophy comes to life. Using the central idea of causality as a guiding principle, Brendan Wilson shows how the history of philosophy becomes a very clear and natural sequence of events. The resulting perspective reveals the deep connections between the problems of science, mind and reality, freedom and responsibility, knowledge, language, truth and religion.Newcomers to philosophy will be able to engage with the great questions and ideas of the western tradition. The writing is clear and jargon-free, while the 'short-chapter' format gives the reader time...

Here is an anthology with a difference. Covering all the central areas of philosophy in sixty varied readings, it nevertheless provides a compact and accessible source book.Guided Readings presents the key ideas and arguments in the writings of philosophers from Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant, to modern figures like Russell and Wittgenstein, and contemporaries like Putnam and Searle. Incisive editing pares the source material down to the essentials, while commentaries and questions guide the reader towards a deeper understanding of the fundamental problems.This...