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LiterallyAnscombe16 karma

I have two larger questions, but I'll put them in the same post.

In your 1988 book on Wittgenstein, you controversially downplayed the importance of the Philosophical Investigations which still forms the keystone of most study of Wittgenstein today. Do you still hold to this thesis? If so (and as briefly as you wish to explain it) has anything in your experience since writing that book led you to be strengthened in that opinion?

What do you make of the late American novelist David Foster Wallace also downplaying the Philosophical Investigations in his personal correspondence and recorded conversations believing it was unable to deal with the "problem of solipsism" raised in the Tractatus?

And the second being...

Which contemporary philosophers do you admire the most?

Recently, the traditional division of philosophy into "Analytical" and "Continental" approaches has come under a good deal of fresh scrutiny. Do you feel this is still a useful way of classification of distinct approaches to philosophy? Are there any Continental Philosophers that you admire?

LiterallyAnscombe6 karma

I saw the Larkin question, and I thought I'd add another if you're still here: who are your favourite fictional authors (living or dead, in poetry or in prose)?

You speak a lot of your admiration of Candide, do you feel any other philosophically-oriented fiction has reached the same level of accomplishment or engagement with its subject?