Duncan Richter

This paper aims at explaining and defending some of Cora Diamond's thinking about the role of a kind of guides to thinking about ethics. Aids to thinking of this type can take a very general form but can also be applied in context‐sensitive ways. Maria Balaska has raised the question whether Diamond manages to avoid relativism. Oskari Kuusela also criticises Diamond, focussing on whether talk of human equality can be said to correspond to reality. I will consider these objections in turn and try to show that Diamond is not committed either intentionally or otherwise to relativism.

This paper aims to identify the main points that Peter Winch makes, or reminders that he offers, about understanding ourselves and others. It would no doubt be possible to construct a theory out of these ideas, but I try to avoid giving the impression that Winch does so. Instead, the most Wittgensteinian approach to the subject is, as Winch does, to describe, remind and thereby clarify, without putting forward any kind of questionable hypothesis. Winch's work brings out the fact that understanding people is importantly connected to both wisdom and practical being in tune with others, but identical with neither.

How, if at all, can we do moral philosophy in the light of the radical critique made by Elizabeth Anscombe in "Modern Moral Philosophy"? Among the principal theses of this essay is that ethical thinking suffers from a widespread appeal to incoherent uses of terms such as 'obligation,' 'ought,' 'right' and 'wrong.' I first explain and evaluate her thesis and the argument for it, and I then confront the challenge it poses: what ways are there of doing moral philosophy that avoid the kind of incoherence to which she has drawn our attention? The only way to show how it is possible for us to think about ethics is to demonstrate how to do so, using actual cases. The dissertation thus combines the critical study of central theoretical issues about ethics with concrete examination of serious practical issues . ;The first chapter deals directly with Anscombe's paper. In the next two, I examine the approaches to ethics recommended by other philosophers in the Wittgansteinian tradition to which Anscombe belongs: Sabina Lovibond, Renford Bambrough and Cora Diamond. A critique of Lovibond's Realism and Imagination in Ethics takes up the rest of chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with Bambrough and Diamond. Drawing on their views, I suggest that moral philosophy should at least begin with an attempt to understand the facts relevant to central moral debates and issues. ;Chapter 4 focuses on the disagreement between the religious view of suicide as perhaps the ultimate sin and the non-religious view that suicide is often justified. I look at R. F. Holland's work as a good example of an attempt to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the divide. In a somewhat parallel way, chapter 5 is concerned with the abortion debate. Here I look sympathetically at recent attempts by Ronald Dworkin and Warren Quinn to find some ground away from the two familiar poles of the debate. I do not claim that such attempts are always successful, but the effort to understand what they involve is at least worthwhile

The subject of this paper is not Wittgensteinian ethics but Wittgenstein’s own ethical beliefs, specifically as these are revealed in the so-called Koder diaries. While the Koder Diaries, also known as Manuscript 183, do contain the kind of thing that one would expect to find in a diary (e.g. accounts of travel and personal relationships), they also contain more obviously philosophical remarks, sometimes as reflections on these personal remarks. Wittgenstein’s diaries illustrate well a point that Iris Murdoch has emphasized, that a person’s inner life can have an ethical dimension not necessarily directly related to overt action or to other people. The kind of ethical concern that we see in these diaries is one with what we might call global implications. Not in the sense that they might affect the whole planet but in the sense that, for Wittgenstein (or anyone else involved in such struggles or deliberations), they might affect every aspect of his life in the way that a religious conversion might change one’s whole life. This ethical ubiquity is another idea that Murdoch has brought to attention.

The A to Z of Wittgenstein's Philosophy is intended for anyone who wants to know more about the philosophy and the life of this enigmatic thinker. The book contains an introductory overview of his life and work, a timeline of the major relevant events in and after his life, an extensive bibliography, and, above all, an A-Z of ideas, people, and places that have been involved in his philosophy and its reception. The dictionary is written with no particular agenda and includes entries on philosophers who influenced Wittgenstein, those he influenced in turn, and some of the main figures in contemporary Wittgenstein scholarship. Suggestions for further reading are also included, as well as a guide to the literature on Wittgenstein and a bibliography broken down by subject area

Philosophy certainly has connections with science but it is not itself a science. Nor is it literature. But it is related to literature in a way that excessive emphasis on science can obscure. In this paper I defend the rather old-fashioned view that philosophy is essentially linguistic. I also argue, less conventionally, that there is an unavoidable personal aspect to at least some philosophical problems, and in answering them we must speak for ourselves without being able to count on every other speaker of our language agreeing with us or even understanding what we say. Where the rules of our language are not set we must, so to speak, make them up for ourselves as we go. In this way philosophy requires the kind of linguistic creativity more often associated with poetical kinds of literature. Drawing on the work of Cora Diamond and Alice Crary, I argue that philosophy should be regarded as, not identical with, but continuous with poetry.