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On Philosophy’s (Lack of) Progress: From Plato to Wittgenstein (and Rawls)

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Wittgenstein and Plato

Abstract

There is a wonderful, ironical remark in Wittgenstein’s Culture and Value, which runs as follows: ‘I read: “philosophers are no nearer to the meaning of ‘Reality’ than Plato got … ” What a singular situation. How singular then that Plato has been able to get even as far as he did! Or that we could get nofurther afterwards! Was it because Plato was so clever?’1

Uberhaupt hat der Fortschritt das an sich, dass er viel grosser ausschaut, als er wirklich ist.

Nestroy; used by Wittgenstein as the mottofor his later master work, Philosophical Investigations

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Authors
  1. Rupert Read
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy

    Luigi Perissinotto

  2. University of Valencia, Spain

    Begoña Ramón Cámara

Copyright information

© 2013 Rupert Read

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Read, R. (2013). On Philosophy’s (Lack of) Progress: From Plato to Wittgenstein (and Rawls). In: Perissinotto, L., Cámara, B.R. (eds) Wittgenstein and Plato. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313447_11

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