This complicated form of life

by Newton Garver

Wittgenstein has most often been treated as a thinker whose ideas can be discussed independently of any intellectual tradition. The thrust of this work, by a leading exponent of Wittgenstein's thought, is to insist upon - and to demonstrate in detail - the mutual relevance of Wittgenstein's work and the tradition of Western philosophy. Far from overthrowing or stepping outside that tradition, Wittgenstein builds on it, draws from it, and contributes brilliantly to the fruition of certain elements in it. In This Complicated Form of Life, Garver analyzes from several angles Wittgenstein's relationship to Kant, and to what Finch has called Wittgenstein's completion of Kant's revolt against the Cartesian hegemony of epistemology in philosophy. But with respect to the givenness of "this complicated form of life", Wittgenstein appears closer to Aristotle than to Kant. Seeing Wittgenstein within the Western philosophical tradition requires a fresh look at Wittgenstein as well as at the tradit