“But What About This?”

Philosophical Investigations §§19–20 have received little critical attention and their importance has mostly gone unappreciated. In this paper these sections are examined a few sentences at a time in the order they were written with an eye to determining what Wittgenstein does and does not say and how he has been and can be misinterpreted. In addition it is suggested that the material deserves careful consideration because it sheds light on Wittgenstein’s way of tackling philosophical problems, illuminates his pronouncements about philosophy later in the Investigations, and serves as a valuable antidote to the widely-held view that whenever he discusses a philosophical problem he ends up advancing a philosophical thesis

Changing Fortunes of the Method of Hypothesis

Review of L. Laudan, Science and Hypothesis. Treats Laudan on the history of methodology (and the history of epistemology) focusing on the method of hypothesis

Mathematics as a Cultural System

Review of Raymond L. Wilder, Mathematics as a Cultural System

The Cambridge Companion to Quine

Review of Gibson (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Quine

Laudan and the Problem-Solving Approach to Scientific Progress and Rationality

Critical discussion of Larry Laudan's problem-solving approach to scientific progress and rationality as presented in his Progress and Its Problems