Wittgenstein’s Liberatory Philosophy is a book authored by Rupert Read and published by Routledge. In this book, Rupert Read offers the first outline of a resolute reading, following the highly influential New Wittgenstein ‘school’, of the Philosophical Investigations. He argues that the key to understanding Wittgenstein’s later philosophy is to understand its liberatory purport. Read contends that a resolute reading coincides in its fundaments with what, building on ideas in the later Gordon Baker, he calls a liberatory reading. Liberatory philosophy is philosophy that can liberate the user from compulsive (and destructive) patterns of thought, freeing one for possibilities that were previously obscured. Such liberation is our prime goal in…

Wittgenstein among the Sciences is a book written by Rupert Read and edited by Simon Summers. It is published by Routledge. Engaging with the question of the extent to which the so-called human, economic or social sciences are actually sciences, this book moves away from the search for a criterion or definition that will allow us to sharply distinguish the scientific from the non-scientific. Instead, the book favours the pursuit of clarity with regard to the various enterprises undertaken by human beings, with a view to dissolving the felt need for such a demarcation. In other words, Read pursues a ‘therapeutic’ approach to the issue of the status and nature…

A Wittgensteinian Way with Paradoxes is a book written by Rupert Read and published by Lexington Books. A Wittgensteinian Way with Paradoxes examines how some of the classic philosophical paradoxes that have so puzzled philosophers over the centuries can be dissolved. Read argues that paradoxes such as the Sorites, Russell’s Paradox and the paradoxes of time travel do not, in fact, need to be solved. Rather, using a resolute Wittgensteinian ‘therapeutic’ method, the book explores how virtually all apparent philosophical paradoxes can be diagnosed and dissolved through examining their conditions of arising; to loosen their grip and therapeutically liberate those philosophers suffering from them (including oneself). The book contrasts such…

Beyond The Tractatus Wars is an edited collection co-authored by Rupert Read and Matthew A. Lavery. It is published by Routledge. Over fifteen years have passed since Cora Diamond and James Conant turned Wittgenstein scholarship upside down with the program of “resolute” reading, and ten years since this reading was crystallized in the major collection The New Wittgenstein. This approach remains at the center of the debate about Wittgenstein and his philosophy, and this book draws together the latest thinking of the world’s leading Tractatarian scholars and promising newcomers. Showcasing one piece alternately from each “camp”, Beyond the Tractatus Wars pairs newly commissioned pieces addressing differing views on how to…

There is No Such Thing as a Social Science is a book written by Phil Hutchinson, Rupert Read and Wes Sharrock. It is published by Routledge. The death of Peter Winch in 1997 sparked a revived interest in his work with this book arguing his work suffered misrepresentation in both recent literature and in contemporary critiques of his writing. Debates in philosophy and sociology about foundational questions of social ontology and methodology often claim to have adequately incorporated and moved beyond Winch’s concerns. Re-establishing a Winchian voice, the authors examine how such contentions involve a failure to understand central themes in Winch’s writings and that the issues which occupied him…

Applying Wittgenstein is a book written by Rupert Read and edited by Laura Cook. It is published by Bloomsbury. A key development in Wittgenstein Studies over recent years has been the advancement of a resolutely therapeutic reading of the Tractatus. Rupert Read offers the first extended application of this reading of Wittgenstein, encompassing Wittgenstein’s later work too, to examine the implications of Wittgenstein’s work as a whole upon the domains especially of literature, psychopathology, and time. Read begins by applying Wittgenstein’s remarks on meaning to language, examining the consequences our conception of philosophy has for the ways in which we talk about meaning. He goes on to engage with literary…

The New Wittgenstein is an edited collection co-authored by Alice Crary and Rupert Read, and published by Routledge. This text offers major re-evaluation of Wittgenstein’s thinking. It is a collection of essays that presents a significantly different portrait of Wittgenstein. The essays clarify Wittgenstein’s modes of philosophical criticism and shed light on the relation between his thought and different philosophical traditions and areas of human concern. With essays by Stanley Cavell, James Conant, Cora Diamond, Peter Winch and Hilary Putnam, we see the emergence of a new way of understanding Wittgenstein’s thought. This is a controversial collection, with essays by highly regarded Wittgenstein scholars that may change the way we…