Language and Solitude

Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma

By: Ernest Gellner, David Gellner (Editor), Steven Lukes (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 11 December 1998

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230 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 1.22

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Ernest Gellner (1925-1995) has been described as 'one of the last great central European polymath intellectuals'. His last book throws new 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.

Industry Reviews

'... at once a synoptic interpretation of the thought of Wittgenstein and Malinowski; a comparative assessment of their world-views - of their accounts of knowledge, language and culture; a brilliant sociological sketch of the common socio-political and intellectual background which they shared; a view of their influence upon their respective disciplines; and a passionate and polemical argument with them and some of their successors, in which Gellner once more and for the last time eloquently and succinctly expresses his own world view.' Steven Lukes 'The theme of this book - the tension between philosophies of individualism and holism - is both timely and very important. No-one else I know could approach it with the depth and width of Ernest Gellner, taking on philosophy, anthropology and history with such confidence and ability. The book is full of his characteristic wit, insight, lucidity and clarity of vision ... This is a provocative, deeply felt and important work [which] continues the tradition of his major onslaught on some of the closed systems of our century.' Alan MacFarlane

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Preface
Foreword
The Habsburg Predicament
Swing alone or swing together
The rivals
Genesis of the individualist vision
The metaphysics of romanticism
Romanticism and the basis of nationalism
Individualism and holism in society
Crisis in Kakania
Pariah liberalism
Recapitulation
Wittgenstein
The loneliness of the long-distance empiricist
The poem to solitude, or: confessions of a rranscendental ego who is also a Viennese Jew
The ego and language
The world as solitary vice
The mystical
The central proposition of the Tractatus: world without culture
Wittgenstein mark 2
Tertium non datur
Joint escape
Janik and Toulmin: a critique
The case of the disappearing self
Pariah communalism
Iron cage Kafka style
Malinowski
The birth of modern social anthropology
The Malinowskian revolution
How did Malinowski get there?
Whither anthropology? or: wither Bronislaw Malinowski?
The difference between Krakow and Vienna
Malinowski's achievement and politics
Malinowski's theory of language
Malinowski's later mistake
The (un)originality of Malinowski and Wittgenstein
Influences
The impact and diffusion of Wittgenstein's ideas
The first wave of Wittgenstein's influence
A belated convergence of philosophy and anthropology
Conclusions
The truth of the matter
Our present condition
General bibliography
Jarvie, Bibliography of Ernest Gellner's writings on Wittgenstein, Malinowski, and nationalism
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Language and Solitude

Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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