The philosopher is a fundamental mode of existence of the human being, yet it is experienced only by a minority, an elite. Those constitute, among themselves, a subspecies of Homo sapiens that is sometimes dubbed Homo philosophicus. Our goal here is to investigate, in depth, the philosophical foundations of this ontological-anthropological concept. We analyze the concept of the philosopher into three basic components: the thinker, the artist, and the mathematician, arguing that the three fundamentally participate in maintaining (...) the operation of the philosopher machine. The following text can be considered a contribution to metaphilosophy, written as a structured opinion piece, encompassing a series of reflections drawn from the writer’s own experience as a philosopher. The mode of the presentation is a mixture of personal and experimental writing styles, intentionally avoiding the rigid form of overtly analytical and argumentative discussions. Although numerous philosophers will be discussed below, four key figures, Nietzsche, Russell, Heidegger, and Guattari, occupy a special position in our overall opinionated view on the nature of philosophy. (shrink)

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.

With this provocative book, Quassim Cassam aspires to reorient the philosophical study of self-knowledge so as to bring its methodology and subject matter into line with recognizably human concerns. He pursues this reorientation on two fronts. He proposes replacing what he sees as the field’s standard subject, an ideally rational being he calls Homo Philosophicus, with a more realistic Homo Sapiens. And he proposes shifting the field’s primary focus from ‘narrow epistemological concerns’ to issues reflecting ‘what matters (...) to humans’, such as knowledge of one’s own character and the moral significance of self-knowledge. Cassam also contributes to this field: he advances an inferentialist account of self-knowledge and a moderate instrumentalism about self-knowledge’s value. (shrink)

This book examines the significance of Malcolm X as a social theorist. Though Malcolm X has been studied and written about extensively, this is the first book to offer an in depth analysis of his contributions to critical social theory.

Are humans at their core seekers of their own pleasure or cooperative members of society? Paradoxically, they are both. Pleasure-seeking can take place only within the context of what works within a defined community, and central to any community are the evolved codes and principles guiding appropriate behavior, or morality. The complex interaction of morality and self-interest is at the heart of Geoffrey M. Hodgson’s approach to evolutionary economics, which is designed to bring about a better understanding of human behavior. (...) In From Pleasure Machines to Moral Communities, Hodgson casts a critical eye on neoclassical individualism, its foundations and flaws, and turns to recent insights from research on the evolutionary bases of human behavior. He focuses his attention on the evolution of morality, its meaning, why it came about, and how it influences human attitudes and behavior. This more nuanced understanding sets the stage for a fascinating investigation of its implications on a range of pressing issues drawn from diverse environments, including the business world and crucial policy realms like health care and ecology. This book provides a valuable complement to Hodgson’s earlier work with Thorbjørn Knudsen on evolutionary economics in Darwin’s Conjecture, extending the evolutionary outlook to include moral and policy-related issues. (shrink)

This article discusses Islam and homo deus as a new agenda for humanity’s future. This article tries to explain the reading of homo deus and the problems of humanity in the future. Likewise, regarding the issue of immortality and human happiness in the future from an Islamic perspective. This article tries to analyze the problem using the library research model in carrying out an analysis of the main problem. Humans to fight death and the problems that humans expect (...) in the future to maintain eternity feel like a god who will live eternally in the world. It is not only immortality in the world that modern humans will achieve, but how humans live in the world and gain happiness. True happiness is difficult for humans to obtain, even though humans use the discoveries of modern science. Humans will truly find happiness if they believe in and draw closer to God. The happiness that modern humans feel is only temporary pseudo-happiness. The immortality that modern humans desire is not directly proportional to happiness. This can be seen from the large number of people dying by suicide in various countries, the majority of which are advanced, and technology is developing rapidly, but it still cannot help their spiritual problems. Modern humans think that everything can be solved with the modern science they have discovered, even though there is God’s intervention in life in this world. (shrink)

The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of Italy's most important and original philosophers, has been based on an uncommon erudition in classical traditions of philosophy and rhetoric, the grammarians of late antiquity, Christian theology, and modern philosophy. Recently, Agamben has begun to direct his thinking to the constitution of the social and to some concrete, ethico-political conclusions concerning the state of society today, and the place of the individual within it. In Homo Sacer, Agamben aims to connect the problem (...) of pure possibility, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethics in a context where the latter has lost its previous religious, metaphysical, and cultural grounding. Taking his cue from Foucault's fragmentary analysis of biopolitics, Agamben probes with great breadth, intensity, and acuteness the covert or implicit presence of an idea of biopolitics in the history of traditional political theory. He argues that from the earliest treatises of political theory, notably in Aristotle's notion of man as a political animal, and throughout the history of Western thinking about sovereignty, a notion of sovereignty as power over "life" is implicit. The reason it remains merely implicit has to do, according to Agamben, with the way the sacred, or the idea of sacrality, becomes indissociable from the idea of sovereignty. Drawing upon Carl Schmitt's idea of the sovereign's status as the exception to the rules he safeguards, and on anthropological research that reveals the close interlinking of the sacred and the taboo, Agamben defines the sacred person as one who can be killed and yet not sacrificed—a paradox he sees as operative in the status of the modern individual living in a system that exerts control over the collective "naked life" of all individuals. (shrink)

The motif of reading is placed at the center of Ecce Homo as both a vital problem and a practice in action. Nietzsche undertakes to reread every one of his "so good books" except the one he is currently writing, placing his reader in a position identical to his own. Faced with this ultimate Nietzschean "Library of Babel," the reader will have to re-experience for himself what it means to read his works, and assess his own reading biases in (...) light of the ascending or declining values associated with the text. Rarely noticed by its best commentators, Ecce Homo's "abysmal" mirrored reading device is also that of a labyrinth, haunted by the figures of Ariane and Dionysus, and its singular composition combines the doctrine of eternal return with the selective experiment of reading. (shrink)

Este trabalho examina a evolução da condição humana à luz das teorias de reconhecimento social de Axel Honneth e da ética da responsabilidade de Hans Jonas. Honneth explora como a identidade e a autonomia do indivíduo são moldadas pelo reconhecimento social e pelas relações interativas na sociedade moderna. Jonas, por sua vez, destaca a necessidade de uma ética da responsabilidade diante dos avanços tecnológicos, que devem levar em consideração as consequências futuras das ações humanas. A transição do Homo Sapiens (...) para o Homo Faber simboliza a transformação do ser humano de um ser predominantemente racional e social para um agente produtivo e tecnológico. O diálogo entre Honneth e Jonas revela como a capacidade de transformar o mundo exige não apenas um reconhecimento social contínuo, mas também uma consideração ética profunda sobre o impacto dessas transformações no futuro. O texto argumenta que a intersecção das teorias de ambos oferece uma visão abrangente da nova condição humana, ressaltando a necessidade de integrar a responsabilidade ética e o reconhecimento social na era da tecnologia e da produção. (shrink)

In Homos, he studies the historical, political, and philosophical grounds for the current distrust, within the gay community, of self-identifying moves, for the ...

Published posthumously in 1908, Ecce Homo was written in 1888 and completed just a few weeks before Nietzsche’s complete mental collapse. Its outrageously egotistical review of the philosopher’s life and works—featuring chapters called Why I Am So Wise and Why I Write Such Good Books—are redeemed from mere arrogance by masterful language and ever-relevant ideas. In addition to settling scores with his many personal and philosophical enemies, Nietzsche emphasizes the importance of questioning traditional morality, establishing autonomy, and making a (...) commitment to creativity. Essential reading for students of philosophy, this unique memoir is crucial to an understanding of Nietzsche’s other works. (shrink)

L’article présente et analyse deux représentations de l’agent économique : celle de l’ homo œconomicus chez John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) puis celle de l’ animal laborans, expression que l’on trouve chez Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). Chacun des deux auteurs se situe en opposition à une conception de Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) qui identifie l’être humain à un agent économique, être rationnel, apte au calcul et au raisonnement logique pour son cas personnel mais qui n’est cependant pas un être raisonnable, c’est-à-dire susceptible (...) de vivre en harmonie avec les autres sans le couperet d’une législation qui borne sa liberté. Mill, en désaccord avec la conception du bonheur de Bentham, attribue à l’être économique des aspirations plus élevées, lesquelles seraient à même de se réaliser dans le futur, pourvu qu’une égalité politique authentique, notamment entre hommes et femmes, soit enfin établie. Arendt, née un siècle plus tard, s’inquiète, pour sa part, de la dégradation de l’image que l’être humain a de lui-même en s’identifiant à un animal laborans. Archétype de l’individu dont toutes les occupations se pensent sur le modèle d’une activité nécessaire à sa satisfaction personnelle, enfermé dans le privé de son corps, l’ animal laborans qui n’éprouve que des sensations, de la peine ou du plaisir, s’apparente tout à fait aux êtres insuffisants, non raisonnables, que Bentham avait en tête pour concevoir la législation comme un moyen de les faire vivre ensemble. Si l’on suit Arendt, il n’est pas exclu que la conception benthamienne de l’homme, contre laquelle Mill s’était élevé, puisse devenir la réalité de demain, autrement dit que le règne de l’ animal laborans, être esseulé, ayant perdu jusqu’au besoin de guider lui-même sa propre conduite à l’égard des autres puisse finir par s’imposer. (shrink)

O artigo aqui apresentado faz parte de uma elaboração sistemática de estilos iconográficos e suas respectivas mensagens iconológicas da cultura visual cristã, com foco na arte religiosa devocional. A obra em questão é um interessante exemplo flamengo da linguagem visual católica em uso cem anos depois da reforma protestante e criada, provavelmente, entre a Trégua dos Doze Anos e o início da[s] Guerra[s] dos Trinta Anos. É estudo a gravura Homo moriens de Hieronymus Wierix do ano [1609/1619]. Formalmente, trata-se (...) de um emblema clássico composto por uma Inscriptio, Pictura e Subscriptio. A obra é lida por meio do método iconológico de Erwin Panofsky. Conclua-se que se o tom da narrativa visual não é polêmico ou controverso, mas, pastoral e especialmente sensíveis à necessidade religiosa de pessoas que se encontram no leito da morte. Trata-se de um discurso visual “interno” da igreja, que dá jus às ênfases soteriológicas estabelecidas pelo Concílio de Trento em uma perspectiva de cuidado, construindo certezas, para poder enfrentar a inevitável agonia. (shrink)

Ecce Homo is an autobiography like no other. Nietzsche passes under review all his previous books and reaches a final reckoning with his many enemies. Ecce Homo is the summation of an extraordinary philosophical career.

Los conceptos de filosofía y método son centrales en el Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus de Wittgenstein. Sin embargo, su comprensión es de alta complejidad puesto que exige un próvido examen de otros conceptos que entran en relación con ellos. Dado que hoy contamos con la teoría de modelos, una teoría matemática con aplicaciones en lógica, debería ser bastante útil utilizar su marco teórico para comprender el Tractatus. El objetivo principal es, entonces, dilucidar los conceptos de filosofía y método mediante un análisis (...) de las proposiciones 1 a 5 con la teoría de modelos. (shrink)

Richard Alexander explains human uniqueness by postulating that at some point an ancestral species became 'ecological dominant' and the external forces of natural selection were replaced by within-species, intergroup competition. It is argued that this transition probably took place in archaic Homo sapiens (Homo heidelbergensis) and not in Homo erectus. Homo erectus was an ecological very flexible species, however.

Ogni tentativo di ripensare le nostre categorie politiche deve muovere dalla consapevolezza che della distinzione classica fra zoé e bios, tra vita naturale ed esistenza politica (o tra l'uomo come semplice vivente e l'uomo come soggetto politico), non ne sappiamo piú nulla. Nel diritto romano arcaico homo sacer era un uomo che chiunque poteva uccidere senza commettere omicidio e che non doveva però essere messo a morte nelle forme prescritte dal rito. È la vita uccidibile e insacrificabile dell' 'uomo (...) sacro' a fornire qui la chiave per una rilettura critica della nostra tradizione politica. Quando la vita diventa la posta in gioco della politica e questa si trasforma in biopolitica, tutte le categorie fondamentali della nostra riflessione, dai diritti dell'uomo alla democrazia alla cittadinanza, entrano in un processo di svuotamento e di dislocazione il cui risultato sta oggi davanti ai nostri occhi. Seguendo il filo del rapporto costitutivo fra nuda vita e potere sovrano, da Aristotele ad Auschwitz, dall'Habeas corpus alle Dichiarazioni dei diritti, il libro di Agamben cerca di decifrare gli enigmi - prima di tutti il fascismo e il nazismo - che il nostro secolo ha proposto alla ragione storica. Fino a vedere, nel campo di concentramento, il paradigma biopolitico nascosto della modernità in cui città e casa sono diventate indiscernibili e la possibilità di distinguere tra il nostro corpo biologico e il nostro corpo politico ci è stata tolta una volta per tutte. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is a presentation of the H. Elzenberg's philosophical theory of the ethical ideal. I pay special attention to the most interesting, from the ethical point of view, parts of his concept. Elzen-berg proposed the ethical ideal, the so called ‘homo ethicus’. I present two ways of its realisation: melioristic and soteristic. My aim is also to prove that Elzenberg’s theory demonstrates that some features of ethical activity distinguish a human being from the background (...) of the natural world and make them exceptional. These attributes include: the realisation of the perfect values such as the good and the beauty, having an ethical will, self-sacrifice, aspiring to perfection and moral salvation. (shrink)

Tomasello et al. point up the mutual interdependency of the unique human capacity for intersubjectivity and the evolution and institutionalization of culture. Since both intersubjectivity and cultural cooperation require localized knowledge, Homo sapiens is highly reliant on such knowledge and in that sense is a highly localized species, requiring special means to surmount cultural misreadings and to achieve translocal, or global, interconnection.

A partir da segunda metade do século XX, as políticas econômicas disseminaram um conjunto de dispositivos sutis, no sentido de seu exercício, ao mesmo tempo em que mais plurais, em relação à sua extensão. Um dos principais deslocamentos epistemológicos produzidos pelo discurso neoliberal diz respeito à inserção da subjetividade humana como elemento central da racionalidade econômica. A inclusão da subjetividade na lógica dos cálculos econômicos possibilitou construir a figura do homo oeconomicus como referente antropológico do novo discurso neoliberal. Um (...) dos principais autores nessa jornada é Ludwig von Mises. A teoria misiana é profundamente filosófica: dela é possível coletar toda a estrutura da teoria neoliberal e de seu contraste bifocal entre a ação econômica do mercado e a teoria política do Estado, e nela o homo oeconomicus ocupa um lugar central. A genealogia de Michel Foucault sobre o escopo da governamentalidade neoliberal trouxe um olhar crítico diferente sobre os princípios constitutivos deste discurso. A par da teoria de Mises, a leitura de Foucault nos é precisa, na medida em que nos permite contrastar a razão de governo, constituída ao longo dos modelos de pensamento, com aquela ótica empresarial do homo oeconomicus como um suposto sujeito soberano. O intuito deste ensaio é provocar um cruzamento crítico entre o pensamento de Mises e de Foucault, concentrado principalmente no estudo das contradições que surgem no seio do discurso neoliberal da figura do homo oeconomicus como sujeito soberano, com as práticas de governamentalização desse mesmo homo oeconomicus. O ensaio é constituído de três momentos: primeiramente, nosso objetivo é compreender a teoria do mercado de von Mises, com o intuito de alinhavar alguns conceitos importantes, em especial o conceito de soberania do homo oeconomicus; em seguida, temos como pretensão analisar a teoria de Foucault sobre a governamentalidade neoliberal, acenando em direção ao modo pelo qual a teoria de Mises projeta-se como uma razão econômica de governo; em um terceiro ponto, desenvolvemos algumas implicações derivadas dos cruzamentos das teses sobre a soberania do homo oeconomicus, de Mises, com as análises sobre a governamentalidade desse homo oeconomicus desenvolvidas pelos estudos de Foucault. (shrink)

The phenomenon of war occupies one of the leading places in socio-philosophical and cultural studies. War also has an ambiguous position in human life. On the historical map we see the ongoing waves of armed conflicts, which inevitably lead to fatal consequences for countries, peoples and human beings. War mainly appears in the form of horrors and tragedies. However, in philosophical studies, war is considered from different angles. Philosophers often emphasize the ambiguity and multidimensionality of war. In this work, the (...) authors analyze the phenomenon of war, given a certain “attractiveness” and even the “necessity” of this phenomenon for humans. The authors also summarize the available range of answers to the question of where the desire for violence comes from, that is, the so-called “thirst for war”. It is this desire that gives rise to a constant stay of people in a state of war. The results of this study show that war is indeed an important phenomenon, which can also be considered one of the fundamental attributes of human nature. Analyzing various approaches that explain the causes of war the authors note that the source of any armed conflict is precisely the “militancy” in the very essence of homo sapiens. Human beings must constantly fight for their existence. And such a struggle often takes various forms, which can be considered as concrete variants of the same phenomenon. This phenomenon at the theoretical and philosophical level is fixed in the concept of war. Despite the natural sense of horror that the word “war” evokes at the level of everyday consciousness, pain and hope, death and freedom, faith in human and the justice of the universe, as well as a willingness to fight for this justice, are simultaneously hidden under this “ language shell”. All these internally contradictory meanings are united within the framework of the philosophically processed concept of war, and are also embodied in many different “wars” that a person constantly wages due to his / her specific “being structure”. Human, therefore, is a “warring creature,” or, as the authors propose to denote this feature, “homo militaris”. (shrink)

Giorgio Agamben defines the sacred man or Homo Sacer as one who is not worthy of sacrifice. Having lost all rights, the person is reduced to the non-human. In modern times, banishment or banning by the law occurs when a state of exception is sanctioned by a totalitarian supremacy that suspends judicial power. The state of exception does not lie within or outside the boundaries of the judicial order, but in a zone of indifference. The state of exception in (...) which the norm is annulled represents the inclusion, which in turn captures the space in which law becomes suspended. Here, I discuss how the authorities in José Saramago's Blindness and The Cave function within the law of exception, confining and defining space, and ultimately marking the Homo Sacer. (shrink)

In Homo Aestheticus, Luc Ferry argues that this central problem of aesthetic theory is fundamentally related to the political problem of democratic individualism.

Heuristics are efficient cognitive processes that ignore information. In contrast to the widely held view that less processing reduces accuracy, the study of heuristics shows that less information, computation, and time can in fact improve accuracy. We review the major progress made so far: the discovery of less-is-more effects; the study of the ecological rationality of heuristics, which examines in which environments a given strategy succeeds or fails, and why; an advancement from vague labels to computational models of heuristics; the (...) development of a systematic theory of heuristics that identifies their building blocks and the evolved capacities they exploit, and views the cognitive system as relying on an “adaptive toolbox;” and the development of an empirical methodology that accounts for individual differences, conducts competitive tests, and has provided evidence for people’s adaptive use of heuristics. Homo heuristicus has a biased mind and ignores part of the available information, yet a biased mind can handle uncertainty more efficiently and robustly than an unbiased mind relying on more resource-intensive and general-purpose processing strategies. (shrink)

The article considers the key characteristics of a designing person. In particular, the author describes projective consciousness and the ability to creatively change the world and change oneself. To do this, the author re-evaluates the content of the concept of the project; explores the functions of projective thinking and reflection; refers to the study of the change in time and space of a person living in a constant situation of creating a project. Modern social space and time are strongly turning (...) towards social design, which imposes new requirements on a person—to be not just intellectually developed and pragmatic, but also artistically organized. As a result, a new way of existence and finding oneself is emerging—this is a homo projectus, a socially adaptive, enterprising, creative person, who is in a permanent state of changing reality and searching for ways of self-change. (shrink)

The concept of Homo economicus, one of the major foundations of neoclassical economics and a subset of the ideology of laisser-faire capitalism. was recently charged and tried in the island high court. Using the island’s virtual jury system for the first time, the accused was tried before a jury of three — Plato, Schopenhauer and feminist economists — chosen by him while under a veil of ignorance of the charge. All three returned guilty verdicts. Plato’s was prescriptive: ‘One ought (...) not to be like Homo economicus’. Schopenhauer’s verdict was descriptive: ‘Human nature is not Homo economicus’. The feminist verdict was both. Following the trial — described as a thought experiment — the island’s resident philosopher put forward two claims: (a) Neoclassical economists base their theories on a deficient depiction of humankind (descriptive misconception) a claim supported by a witness expert in experimental economics; (b) The depiction holds a dominant but unjustified position in various discourses such as welfare state debates because it is promoted by a small but highly influential group of economically privileged, universityeducated whites, namely graduates of economics, a claim supported by the sociology expert witness. (shrink)

In this study, the philosophical and modern problems that arise in the fields of ontology and epistemology within the framework of Descartes' method are studied and investigated. There is an extensive literature on Cartesian philosophy. Homo sapiens refers to the type of people who can think and can collaborate and collaborate with many members. Homo cogitans means the kind of person who can think again but thinking here is not just thinking. We are talking about a species that (...) thinks how it thinks and prioritizes its own thoughts and good sense. Our aim here is to study the journey of a man from Homo sapiens to homo cogitans. We investigated and analyzed the answers to many questions such as what the effects of Cartesian philosophy are today, how Descartes' methodical suspicion led us to individualism. (shrink)

У статті представлено концептуалізацію дихотомії категорій «дух/розум-тіло», в основі якої необхідність формування креативного класу, який несе в собі зміни для держави і сприяє розвитку і самоствердженню особистості. Дихотомія категорій «дух/розум-тіло» пов’язана з формуванням креативної особистості в умовах нових технологій, які сприяють формуванню креативного світогляду, в основі якого інформаційна творчість та інновації. Постановка завдання. Зроблено акцент на те, що філософія економіки направлена на формування креативного класу, який повинен розвивати іманентні сили, які розширяють горизонти дихотомії «дух/розум-тіло», раніше обмежені як людиною, так і (...) суспільством. Аналіз останніх досліджень і публікацій. Філософія економіки використовує різноманітні економічні моделі науково-технічного прогресу Є. Бріньолфссона, Е. Макафі, Ю. Трінкса, М. Фюрст, Р. Флориди та інших, в основі яких вирішення проблем людини. Виділення недосліджених частин загальної проблеми – концептуалізація дихотомії «дух/розум-тіло» та вплив її складових на формування «homo creativus» у філософії економіки та їх значення для сучасності. В основі дослідження - концептуалізація базових понять дух, тіло, розум, креативність та їх вплив на формування креативного класу. Методологія – застосування методів економічної антропології та синергетики для вирішення складних проблем дихотомії «дух/розум-тіло» та їх вплив на формування «homo creativus» у філософії економіки. Виклад основного матеріалу. Розглянуто предмет вивчення філософії економіки, в основі якої глибинна внутрішня сутність дихотомії «дух/розум-тіло» і представлено її основні характеристики. Розкрито сутність економічної антропології та синергетики, які допомагають проникнути в глибину феномена дихотомії «дух/розум-тіло». Досліджено умови формування Homo creativus як визначального чинника нового типу особистості з відповідною поведінкою, здібностями, ціннісними орієнтаціями. Висновки. Виявлено умови, які відкривають нові можливості для творчості, креативності, інтелекту, що сприяють формуванню сталого буття завдяки сучасним технологіям, представленим «другою епохою машин». (shrink)

Resumo : este artigo analisa a apropriação que Agamben faz das concepções heideggerianas de facticidade e Ereignis. Esta apropriação é analisada dentro do escopo da obra Homo Sacer. O desenvolvimento destas duas seções busca responder a seguinte pergunta: como se explica a passagem da ontologia para dentro da filosofia política em Agamben? Para responder esta pergunta, na primeira seção, busca-se compreender uma ampliação possível dos problemas da dominação da técnica. Na segunda seção, estes problemas são submetidos a uma perspectiva (...) biolítica apresentada por Agamben. A resposta mostra que Agamben aproxima as concepções de Heidegger com o tema da indistinção entre poder constituinte e poder constituído, direcionando-se para uma releitura da relação potência e ato com o poder. (shrink)

Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance, it immediately convinced many of its readers and captivated the imagination of all. Its chief influence, at first, was on the Logical Positivists of the 1920s and 30s, but many other philosophers were stimulated by its (...) philosophy of language, finding attractive, if ultimately unsatisfactory, its view that propositions were pictures of reality. Perhaps most of all, Wittgenstein himself, after his return to philosophy in the late 1920s, was fascinated by its vision of an inexpressible, crystalline world of logical relationships. The posthumous publication of other writings has, therefore, only served to reawaken interest in the Tractatus and to illuminate its more neglected aspects. David Pears and Brian McGuinness revised their translation in the light of Wittgenstein's own suggestions and comments in his correspondence with C.K. Ogden about the first translation. In addition, this edition contains the introduction by Bertrand Russell which appeared in the original English translation. (shrink)