Wittgensteinian Way with Paradoxes

Rupert Read seems to be a spoilsport, until you realize how serious and important his objectives are in this book. He explains away several brain-teasing paradoxes, and he uses those explanations to illustrate and illuminate themes in philosophy, in general, and Wittgenstein, in particular. However, he also investigates subjects such as racism and self-hatred that greatly affect our lives outside of the classroom or study. -- Don Levi, University of Oregon A fascinating study, by a major Wittgensteinian, of Wittgenstein's seemingly paradoxical view of paradox: on one hand, mere confusion in a philosopher's use of words; on the other, the deepest expression of our human nature. In these lively and powerfully illuminating essays, Rupert Read takes us to the very heart of Wittgenstein's enterprise, offering one way of understanding the sense in which this crucial figure of modern thought both was and was not an anti-philosopher. -- Louis A. Sass, author of The Paradoxes of Delusion: Wittgenstein, Schreber, and the Schizophrenic Mind