The first edition of Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning was written between 1976 and 1979. Gordon Baker and I intended it to be a comprehensive commentary on §§1–184 of Wittgenstein’s masterwork that would serve as a reference work for scholars intent upon a close study of the text. The essays attempted to give overviews of Wittgenstein’s treatment of specific themes. They aimed to trace the development of his thought, in particular contrasting his first philosophy in the Tractatus with his evolving ideas in the 1930s and with the definitive statement of his later philosophy in the Philosophical Investigations. The exegesis attempted to explain Wittgenstein’s individual remarks, their role in the.
