Language and solitude : Wittgenstein, Malinowski, and the Habsburg dilemma / Ernest Gellner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gellner, Ernest, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.

Malinowski, Bronislaw, 1884-1942.

Malinowski, Bronislaw.

Austria--Intellectual life--20th century.

Austria.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 209 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Language & Solitude

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ernest Gellner (1925-95) has been described as 'one of the last great central European polymath intellectuals'. His last book, first published in 1998, throws light on two leading thinkers of their time. Wittgenstein, arguably the most influential and the most cited philosopher of the twentieth century, is famous for having propounded two radically different philosophical positions. Malinowski, the founder of modern British social anthropology, is usually credited with being the inventor of ethnographic fieldwork, a fundamental research method throughout the social sciences. In a highly original way, Gellner shows how the thought of both men grew from a common background of assumptions - widely shared in the Habsburg Empire of their youth - about human nature, society, and language. Tying together themes which preoccupied him throughout his working life, Gellner epitomizes his belief that philosophy - far from 'leaving everything as it is' - is about important historical, social and personal issues.

Contents:

pt. I. The Habsburg dilemma. 1. Swing alone or swing together. 2. The rivals. 3. Genesis of the individualist vision. 4. The metaphysics of romanticism. 5. Romanticism and the basis of nationalism. 6. Individualism and holism in society. 7. Crisis in Kakania. 8. Pariah liberalism. 9. Recapitulation pt. II. Wittgenstein. 10. The loneliness of the long distance empiricist. 11. The poem to solitude, or: confessions of a transcendental ego who is also a Viennese Jew. 12. Ego and language. 13. The world as solitary vice. 14. The mystical. 15. The central proposition of the Tractatus: world without culture. 16. Wittgenstein mark 2. 17. Tertium non datur. 18. Joint escape. 19. Janik and Toulmin: a critique. 20. The case of the disappearing self. 21. Pariah communalism. 22. Iron cage Kafka style pt. III. Malinowski. 23. The birth of modern social anthropology. 24. The Malinowskian revolution. 25. How did Malinowski get there? 26. Whither anthropology? Or: whither Bronislaw? 27. The difference between Cracow and Vienna. 28. Malinowski's achievement and politics. 29. Malinowski's theory of language. 30. Malinowski's later mistake. 31. The (un)originality of Malinowski and Wittgenstein pt. IV. Influences. 32. The impact and diffusion of Wittgenstein's ideas. 33. The first wave of Wittgenstein's influence. 34. A belated convergence of philosophy and anthropology pt. V. Conclusions.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-204) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-11535-3

0-511-05086-0

0-511-61246-X

0-521-63002-9

0-511-15187-X

0-511-17295-8

0-511-32327-1

1-280-42019-7

OCLC:

475917348