Philosophical Health

The style of Wittgenstein's writing in his Philosophical Investigations seems quite peculiar to many readers, and is in many way unlike any other style of writing in the history of philosophy. In Philosophical Health, Richard Gilmore argues that Wittgenstein's ultimate goal in the "Investigations" is to restore us to a condition of philosophical health. The traditional methods and styles of doing philosophy, Gilmore suggests, led to a strange kind of philosophical sickness. Philosophical health is a condition that does not repudiate the philosophical search or philosophical wonder, but does free us from a kind of sickness that results from looking in the wrong places for the wrong kinds of answers. According to Gilmore, Wittgenstein thought that to do philosophy in the right way we have to pay careful attention to the way we speak and think about things in our everyday lives. Philosophical Health is an original and thought-provoking look at Wittgenstein's later philosophy.

The style of Wittgenstein's writing in his Philosophical Investigations seems quite peculiar to many readers, and is in many way unlike any other style of writing in the history of philosophy.

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Focusing upon the only work from Wittgenstein's later philosophy that he intended for publication, Gilmore (philosophy, Concordia College) argues that what is most important in Wittgenstein's later writings is not any one point he made about language or anything else, but was his method of investigation. Wittgenstein, contends the author, is primarily interested in confronting Platonic rationalism/idealism and Aristotelian empiricism/skepticism as misguided departures from the original philosophical impulse of the `why' question. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Richard Gilmore is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Concordia College.