Wittgenstein on logic as the method of philosophy : re-examining the roots and development of analytic philosophy /

In this provocative, wide-ranging, and ambitious book, Kuusela (Univ. of East Anglia, UK) undertakes nothing less than showing how a reading of the early and late Wittgenstein can unite two long parallel strands of 20th- and 21st-century analytic philosophy: ideal and ordinary language analysis. Kuusala focuses on Wittgenstein's development of logic against the historical background of Frege's and Russell's logical turn (at the dawn of the development of analytic philosophy), and indeed his ultimate thesis is that the correct understanding of Wittgenstein's theory of logic will show (what many take to be the declining paradigm of) analytic philosophy the way forward to the right grasp of the nature of philosophy and its proper technique. Most interesting, for this reviewer, were Kuusela's many discussions of Rudolf Carnap's work and influence; most missed was extended discussion of contemporary analytic philosophers (logicians and philosophers of language). This dense technical book will interest analytically trained philosophers committed to the tradition, philosophers of logic, philosophers of language, and of course scholars of Wittgenstein. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Katheryn Hill Doran, Hamilton College