"This is the most important book on Wittgenstein in over a decade, but it is also much more than that. These essays range widely over issues in the philosophy of language, ethics, and literature and they illuminate everything they touch. They show the full range and power of one of the best philosophical minds I know."
-- Hillary Putnam, Harvard University

The realistic spirit, a nonmetaphysical approach to philosophical thought concerned with the character of philosophy itself, informs all of the discussions in these essays by philosopher Cora Diamond. Diamond explains Wittgenstein's notoriously elusive later writings, explores the background to his thought in the work of Frege, and discusses ethics in a way that reflects his influence. Diamond's new reading of Wittgenstein challenges currently accepted interpretations and shows what it means to look without mythology at the coherence, commitments, and connections that are distinctive of the mind.

Representation and Mind series