Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writings inspired contemporary philosophical thinking and advanced many issues that had been addressed by traditional philosophy. The questions raised by the Viennese philosopher initiated debates on a reconsideration of philosophical terminology. This is especially true for a term that has generated at least three significant controversies since its creation and will probably generate more disputes in the following years. It is the expression “form(s) of life” which translates into German as “Lebensform(en)” and “Form des Lebens”. The present volume contains contributions on forms of life, language games and the influence of Wittgenstein’s philosophy on other scholears.

Far from overthrowing or stepping outside that tradition, Wittgenstein builds on it, draws from it, and contributes brilliantly to the fruition of certain elements in it. In This Complicated Form of Life, Garver analyzes from several angles Wittgenstein's relationship to Kant, and to what Finch has called Wittgenstein's completion of Kant's revolt against the Cartesian hegemony of epistemology in philosophy.

A COMPANION TO WITTGENSTEIN The most comprehensive survey of Wittgenstein’s thought yet compiled, this volume of fifty newly commissioned essays by leading interpreters of his philosophy is a keynote addition to the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series. Full of penetrating insights into the life and work of the most important philosopher of the twentieth century, the collection explores the full range of Wittgenstein’s contribution to philosophy. It includes essays on his intellectual development, his work in logic and mathematics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and action, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of religion, and much else. As well as examining Wittgenstein’s contribution to human understanding in detail, the Companion features vital contextual analysis that traces the relationship between his ideas and those of other philosophers and schools of thought, including the Aristotelian and continental philosophical traditions. Authors also address prominent themes that remain current in today’s philosophical debates, explaining Wittgenstein’s continuing legacy alongside his historical significance. Essential reading for scholars of philosophy at all levels, A Companion to Wittgenstein combines engaging commentary with unrivaled academic authority.

Wittgenstein used the concept of language games to refer to all forms of linguistic expression in practical contexts and to the myriad ways in which signs are used in language. He used the term to specify speaking as an activity and to relate it to a form of life. Wittgenstein was well aware that his proposal for “language games” did not solve the central problems of language. Until today, the essential characteristics of the concept remain unspecified. The contributors in this volume analyze the reasons for the difficulties in understanding the concept and propose new essential characteristics and contents, by examining language games such as certainty and error, belief, strategy, and their linguistic foundations.

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said: 'I am not a religious man, but I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view.' This study, the last work of the distinguished philosopher Norman Malcolm, is a discussion of what Wittgenstein may have meant by this and its significance for philosophy. The book concludes with a critical discussion of Malcolm's essay by Peter Winch.

This study defends a version of epistemological relativism, taking as its point of departure some key arguments from the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein - especially those concerning rule following and forms of life. An opposition is established between the dominant form of epistemological realism - that which relies upon 'truth-conditions'- and theories in which knowledge and truth are fundamentally dependent upon context. It is argued in Part One that Wittgenstein proves the necessity for a contextual understanding of knowledge. Part Two develops a clearer idea of that context, using Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm. It is argued that this concept has been largely misunderstood (even by Kuhn), but that it can be developed to be remarkably consistent with Wittgenstein's arguments. All those - philosophers, historians, sociologists and others - who wish finally to understand the complex issues involved in debates about epistemological relativism will find this book invaluable.

Working from the phenomenological tradition, the author takes the “form of life” as the central ontological unit. We are our form of life, but as a transcendental-immanent notion. This is not directly equivalent to culture or society, but to the realisation in the world of an image of the human being shared by a given community. The question explored is the following: If the form of life is what gives us being, what role does language play? Topics explored include the concepts of propaganda and ideology. and how these terms always refer to what others say and do, never to our own actions and discourses. The central part of the book is devoted to an analysis of language itself, including propaganda, emotions, dispositions, and racism and racist discourses. The book also analyses Vladimir Putin’s speeches on the occasion of the Russian war in Ukraine, the elements of their propaganda, and the justifying elements that are part of their ethical discourse, whereby actions taken or to be taken are justified as good because they are necessary from their ontological principle.