Ludwig Wittgenstein 
Philosophical Investigations 

Philosophical Investigations

New editions of the Commentary on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations from Wiley-Blackwell

Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning,

Volume 1 of An Analytical Commentary

on the Philosophical Investigations

Part I: Essays

G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker

Second, extensively revised edition by P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning,

Volume 1 of An Analytical Commentary

on the Philosophical Investigations

Part II: Exegesis §§1-184

G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker

Second, extensively revised edition by P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity,

Volume 2 of An Analytical Commentary

on the Philosophical Investigations

Essays and Exegesis of §§185-242

G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker

Second, extensively revised edition by P. M. S. Hacker

Immediately upon its posthumous publication in 1953, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations was hailed as a masterpiece, and the ensuing years have confirmed this initial assessment. Today it is widely acknowledged to be the single most important philosophical work of the twentieth century.

In this definitive new en face German-English edition, Wittgenstein experts Peter Hacker and Joachim Schulte have incorporated significant editorial changes to earlier editions of Philosophical Investigations in order to reflect more closely Wittgenstein’s original intentions. Notable revisions include the placement of Wittgenstein’s notes – Randbemerkungen – into their designated positions in the text, some corrections to the originally published German text, and the numbering of all the remarks in what was called Part 2 and is now named Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment. Extensive modifications and corrections have also been made to G. E. M. Anscombe’s original English translation. Detailed editorial endnotes have been added to illuminate difficult translation decisions and to identify references and allusions in Wittgenstein’s original text.

Table of Content

Editorial Preface to the Fourth Edition and Modified Translation viii

The Text of the Philosophische Untersuchungen xviii

Philosophische Untersuchungen

Philosophical Investigations 1

Philosophie der Psychologie – Ein Fragment

Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment 182

Endnotes 244

Register 267

Index 288

About the author

Peter Hacker is the author of the four-volume Analytical
Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell,
1980-96) the first two volumes co-authored with G. P. Baker (Second
Editions, 2003, 2009) and of Wittgenstein’s Place in
Twentieth-century Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell, 1996). He has
also written extensively on philosophy of mind, including
Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Blackwell, 2003)
and History of Cognitive Neuroscience (Wiley-Blackwell,
2008), co-authored with M. R. Bennett, and Human Nature: The
Categorial Framework (Blackwell, 2007), the first volume of a
trilogy on human nature.

Joachim Schulte edited the authoritative critical-genetic
edition of Wittgenstein’s Philosophische
Untersuchungen (2001). He is author of
Wittgenstein: An Introduction (1989), Chor und Gesetz:
Wittgenstein im Kontext (1990), Experience and Expression:
Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology (1993), and of
many dozens of philosophical papers.