A Sceptical Guide to Meaning and Rules : Defending Kripke's Wittgenstein

No other recent book in Anglophone philosophy has attracted as much criticism and has found so few friends as Saul Kripke's "Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language". Amongst its critics, one finds the very top of the philosophical profession. Yet, it is rightly counted amongst the books that students of philosophy, at least in the Anglo-American world, have to read at some point in their education. Enormously influential, it has given rise to debates that strike at the very heart of contemporary philosophy of mind and language. In this major new interpretation, Martin Kusch defends Kripke's account against the numerous weighty objections that have been put forward over the past twenty years and argues that none of them is decisive. He shows that many critiques are based on misunderstandings of Kripke's reasoning; that many attacks can be blocked by refining and developing Kripke's position; and that many alternative proposals turn out either to be unworkable or to be disguised variants of the view they are meant to replace. Kusch argues that the apparent simplicity of Kripke's text is deceptive and that a fresh reading gives Kripke's overall argument a new strength. "Saul Kripke's Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language has attracted much criticism and few friends, yet it is one of the books that most students of philosophy have to read at some point in their education. Enormously influential, it has given rise to debates that strike at the very heart of contemporary philosophy of mind and language. In this major new interpretation, Martin Kusch defends Kripke's account against the numerous objections that have been put forward over the past twenty years, arguing that none of them is decisive. He shows that many critiques are based on misunderstandings of Kripke's reasoning, many attacks can be blocked by refining and developing Kripke's position, and many alternative proposals turn out either to be unworkable or to be disguised variants of the view they are meant to replace. Kusch argues that the apparent simplicity of Kripke's text is deceptive and that a fresh reading gives Kripke's overall argument a new strength. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET. Cover......Page 1 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Preface......Page 14 Abbreviations......Page 19 1. Introduction......Page 20 2. Normativity......Page 69 3. Dispositions and extensions......Page 113 4. Other responses......Page 146 5. Factualism and non-factualism......Page 167 6. Intersubjectivity and assertability conditions......Page 196 7. Semantic primitivism......Page 226 8. Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein......Page 256 Notes......Page 284 Bibliography......Page 308 Index......Page 318 Martin Kusch defends Saul Kripke's account against the numerous weighty objections that have been put forward over the years and argues that none of them is decisive. He shows that many critiques are based on misunderstandings of Kripke's reasoning and that many attacks can be blocked by refining and developing Kripke's position Defends Saul Kripke's account against the numerous weighty objections that have been put forward over the years and argues that none of them is decisive. This book shows that many critiques are based on misunderstandings of Kripke's reasoning and that many attacks can be blocked by refining and developing Kripke's position.