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The Luck of the Draw: The Role of Lotteries in Decision Making
by Peter StoneFrom the earliest times, people have used lotteries to make decisions--by drawing straws, tossing coins, picking names out of hats, and so on. We use lotteries to place citizens on juries, draft men into armies, assign students to schools, and even on very rare occasions, select lifeboat survivors to be eaten. Lotteries make a great deal of sense in all of these cases, and yet there is something absurd about them. Largely, this is because lottery-based decisions are not based upon reasons. In fact, lotteries actively prevent reason from playing a role in decision making at all. Over the years, people have devoted considerable effort to solving this paradox and thinking about the legitimacy of lotteries as a whole. However, these scholars have mainly focused on lotteries on a case-by-case basis, not as a part of a comprehensive political theory of lotteries. In The Luck of the Draw, Peter Stone surveys the variety of arguments proffered for and against lotteries and argues that they only have one true effect relevant to decision making: the "sanitizing effect" of preventing decisions from being made on the basis of reasons. While this rationale might sound strange to us, Stone contends that in many instances, it is vital that decisions be made without the use of reasons. By developing innovative principles for the use of lottery-based decision making, Stone lays a foundation for understanding when it is--and when it is not--appropriate to draw lots when making political decisions both large and small.
Luck Theory: A Philosophical Introduction to the Mathematics of Luck (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning #20)
by Nicholas RescherThis book is an original—the first-ever treatment of the mathematics of Luck. Setting out from the principle that luck can be measured by the gap between reasonable expectation and eventual realization, the book develops step-by-step a mathematical theory that accommodates the entire range of our pre-systematic understanding of the way in which luck functions in human affairs. In so moving from explanatory exposition to mathematical treatment, the book provides a clear and accessible account of the way in which luck assessment enters into the calculations of rational decision theory.
Luck's Mischief: Obligation and Blameworthiness on a Thread
by Ishtiyaque HajiSomething is subject to luck if it is beyond our control. In this book, Haji shows that luck detrimentally affects both moral obligation and moral responsibility. He argues that factors influencing the way we are, together with considerations that link motivation and ability to perform intentional actions, frequently preclude our being able to do otherwise. Since obligation requires that we can do otherwise, luck compromises the range of what is morally obligatory for us. This result, together with principles that conjoin responsibility and obligation, is then exploited to derive the further skeptical conclusion that behavior for which we are morally responsible is limited as well. Throughout these explorations, Haji makes extensive use of concrete cases to test the limits of how we should understand free will moral responsibility, blameworthiness, determinism, and luck itself.
Luck's Mischief: Obligation and Blameworthiness on a Thread
by Ishtiyaque HajiSomething is subject to luck if it is beyond our control. In this book, Haji shows that luck detrimentally affects both moral obligation and moral responsibility. He argues that factors influencing the way we are, together with considerations that link motivation and ability to perform intentional actions, frequently preclude our being able to do otherwise. Since obligation requires that we can do otherwise, luck compromises the range of what is morally obligatory for us. This result, together with principles that conjoin responsibility and obligation, is then exploited to derive the further skeptical conclusion that behavior for which we are morally responsible is limited as well. Throughout these explorations, Haji makes extensive use of concrete cases to test the limits of how we should understand free will moral responsibility, blameworthiness, determinism, and luck itself.
Lucretian Thought in Late Stuart England: Debates About The Nature Of The Soul
by L. LinkerHow did writers understand the soul in late seventeenth-century England? This book considers depictions of the soul in literary texts that engage with Lucretius's Epicurean philosophy in De rerum natura or through the writings of the most important natural philosopher to disseminate Epicurean atomism in England, Walter Charleton (1619-1707).
Lucretius as Theorist of Political Life (Recovering Political Philosophy)
by J. Colman"John Colman has presented us with a profound and scrupulously detailed inquiry into how Lucretius understood the tensions between the philosophic life and the requirements and characteristics of the life of political action—tensions with which Lucretius had to deal in his endeavor to bring philosophy into Rome." – James H. Nichols, Jr., Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College, USA"Lucretius has been drawing renewed attention for both the depth of his message and the beauty of his poem. Nevertheless, only a few commentators are attentive to the paradox of a philosophic teaching that reduces everything to matter in motion in the form of a beautiful poem. John Colman represents the even more rare case of someone who sees this paradox and explains it intelligently. He is able to show the way Lucretius addresses those interested in beauty and those interested in politics in a work that appears to reject both." – Christopher Kelly, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, USA"A careful study of Lucretius by a notable young scholar showing, not just assuming, that he had a politics. The result is to reveal how his politics compares with that in the Socratic tradition and how he was distorted by his modern students and interpreters." – Harvey C. Mansfield, Professor of Government at Harvard; Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, USALucretius as Theorist of Political Life is an interpretation of Lucretius' poem On the Nature of Things as a defense of philosophy given the irremediable tension between the competing claims of the philosophic and political life. The central issue is the need for, and attempt by, philosophy to justify and defend its way of life to the political community. This work uncovers how Lucretius' conception of the philosophic life, and the reaction to the human, religious, and political implications of the discovery of nature, distinguish his intention from the anti-theological animus that drives the politically and scientifically ambitious project of his modern appropriators.
Lucretius in the Modern World
by W. R. JohnsonLucretius' On the Nature of Things - one of the glories of Latin literature - provides a vivid poetic exposition of the doctrines of the Greek atomist, Epicurus. The poem played a crucial role in the reinvention of science in the seventeenth century, its influence on the French Enlightenment was powerful and pervasive, and it became a major battlefield in the wars of religion with science in nineteenth-century England. But in the twentieth century, despite its vital contributions to modern thought and civilisation, it has been largely neglected by common readers and scientists alike. This book offers an extensive description of the poem, with special emphasis on its cheerful version of materialism and on its attempt to devise an ethical system that suits such a universe. It surveys major relevant texts form the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Dryden, Diderot, Voltaire, Tennyson, Santayana) and speculates on why Lucretius and the ancient scientific tradition he championed has become marginalised in the twentieth century. It closes with a discussion of what value the poem has for students of science and technology in the new century: what advice it has to offer us about how to go about reinventing our machines and our morality.
Lucretius in the Modern World (Classical Inter/faces Ser.)
by Professor W.R. JohnsonLucretius' On the Nature of Things - one of the glories of Latin literature - provides a vivid poetic exposition of the doctrines of the Greek atomist, Epicurus. The poem played a crucial role in the reinvention of science in the seventeenth century, its influence on the French Enlightenment was powerful and pervasive, and it became a major battlefield in the wars of religion with science in nineteenth-century England. But in the twentieth century, despite its vital contributions to modern thought and civilisation, it has been largely neglected by common readers and scientists alike. This book offers an extensive description of the poem, with special emphasis on its cheerful version of materialism and on its attempt to devise an ethical system that suits such a universe. It surveys major relevant texts form the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Dryden, Diderot, Voltaire, Tennyson, Santayana) and speculates on why Lucretius and the ancient scientific tradition he championed has become marginalised in the twentieth century. It closes with a discussion of what value the poem has for students of science and technology in the new century: what advice it has to offer us about how to go about reinventing our machines and our morality.
Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science
by Daryn Lehoux A. D. Morrison Alison SharrockLucretius' didactic masterpiece De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) is one of the most brilliant and powerful poems in the Latin language, a passionate attempt at dispelling humanity's fear of death and its enslavement by false beliefs about the gods, and a detailed exposition of Epicurean atomist physics. For centuries, it has raised the question of whether it is primarily a poem or primarily a philosophical treatise, which also presents scientific doctrine. The current volume seeks to unite the three disciplinary aspects - poetry, philosophy, and science - in order to offer a holistic response to an important monument in cultural history. With ten original essays and an analytical introduction, the volume aims not only to combine different approaches within single covers, but to offer responses to the poem by experts from all three scholarly backgrounds. Philosophers and scholars of ancient science look closely at the artistic placement of individual words, while literary critics explore ethical matters and the contribution of Lucretius' poetry to the argument of the poem. Topics covered include death and grief, evolution and the cosmos, ethics and politics, perception, and epistemology.
Lucrezia Marinella (Elements on Women in the History of Philosophy)
by null Marguerite DeslauriersLucrezia Marinella's (1571–1653) most important contributions to philosophy were two polemical treatises: The Nobility and excellence of Women, and the Defects and Vices of Men, and the Exhortations to Women and to Others if They Please. Marinella argues for the superiority of women over men in every respect: psychologically, physiologically, morally, and intellectually. She is particularly effective in using the resources of ancient philosophy to support her various arguments, in which she draws conclusions about the souls and the bodies of women, the nature and significance of women's beauty, the virtue of women and the liberty to which women as well as men are entitled. This Element showcases that her claim of superiority is intended ultimately to justify the possibility of political rule by women.
Ludic Dreaming: How to Listen Away from Contemporary Technoculture
by Eldritch Priest David Cecchetto Marc Couroux Ted HiebertLudic Dreaming uses (sometimes fictional) dreams as a method for examining sound and contemporary technoculture's esoteric exchanges, refusing both the strictures of visually dominated logic and the celebratory tone that so often characterizes the "sonic turn.†? Instead, through a series of eight quasi-analytical essays on the condition of listening, the book forwards a robust engagement with sounds (human and nonhuman alike) that leverages particularity in its full, radical singularity: what is a dream, after all, if not an incipient physics that isn't held to the scientific demand for repeatability? Thus, these studies declare their challenge to the conventions of argumentation and situate themselves at a threshold between theory and fiction, one that encourages reader and writer alike to make lateral connections between otherwise wildly incongruent subjects and states of affairs. Put differently, Ludic Dreaming is a how-to book for listening away from the seeming fatality of contemporary technologies, which is to say, away from the seeming inevitability of late capitalistic nihilism.
Ludic Dreaming: How to Listen Away from Contemporary Technoculture
by Eldritch Priest David Cecchetto Marc Couroux Ted HiebertLudic Dreaming uses (sometimes fictional) dreams as a method for examining sound and contemporary technoculture's esoteric exchanges, refusing both the strictures of visually dominated logic and the celebratory tone that so often characterizes the “sonic turn.” Instead, through a series of eight quasi-analytical essays on the condition of listening, the book forwards a robust engagement with sounds (human and nonhuman alike) that leverages particularity in its full, radical singularity: what is a dream, after all, if not an incipient physics that isn't held to the scientific demand for repeatability? Thus, these studies declare their challenge to the conventions of argumentation and situate themselves at a threshold between theory and fiction, one that encourages reader and writer alike to make lateral connections between otherwise wildly incongruent subjects and states of affairs. Put differently, Ludic Dreaming is a how-to book for listening away from the seeming fatality of contemporary technologies, which is to say, away from the seeming inevitability of late capitalistic nihilism.
Ludic Inquiries Into Power and Pedagogy in Higher Education: How Games Play Us
by Alison L. Black Helen Grimmett Amelia WalkerThis book interrogates the role games and playfulness bear in both formal education and informal social learning. Responsive to contemporary social and ecological challenges, this book especially explores games’ interactions with social power. On one hand, games sometimes operate to reinforce ideologies that normalise social injustice and environmental disregard. On the other, games offer rich possibilities for questioning such ideologies and encouraging change.Strongly interdisciplinary, the book assembles 20 chapters written by 50 experts across fields including education, game design, cultural studies, sociology, Indigenous studies, disability studies, queer studies, STEM, legal studies, history, creative writing, visual arts, music, the creative industries, and social inclusion. These contributions not only make games a focus but incorporate playful research writing strategies, demonstrating methods of what we term ludic inquiry. This includes chapters written using arts-based research, practice-led research, poetic inquiry, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, duoethnography, and more. Organised across four themes – ‘philosophical sparks’, ‘lived experiences’, ‘pedagogical perspectives’, and ‘the spirit of play’ – this book emphasises the radical egalitarian possibilities inherent in critical attention to games and how we play (or get played by) them. Its fresh insights will interest all readers interested in creatively remaking our worlds.
Ludic Inquiries Into Power and Pedagogy in Higher Education: How Games Play Us
This book interrogates the role games and playfulness bear in both formal education and informal social learning. Responsive to contemporary social and ecological challenges, this book especially explores games’ interactions with social power. On one hand, games sometimes operate to reinforce ideologies that normalise social injustice and environmental disregard. On the other, games offer rich possibilities for questioning such ideologies and encouraging change.Strongly interdisciplinary, the book assembles 20 chapters written by 50 experts across fields including education, game design, cultural studies, sociology, Indigenous studies, disability studies, queer studies, STEM, legal studies, history, creative writing, visual arts, music, the creative industries, and social inclusion. These contributions not only make games a focus but incorporate playful research writing strategies, demonstrating methods of what we term ludic inquiry. This includes chapters written using arts-based research, practice-led research, poetic inquiry, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, duoethnography, and more. Organised across four themes – ‘philosophical sparks’, ‘lived experiences’, ‘pedagogical perspectives’, and ‘the spirit of play’ – this book emphasises the radical egalitarian possibilities inherent in critical attention to games and how we play (or get played by) them. Its fresh insights will interest all readers interested in creatively remaking our worlds.
Ludic Ubuntu Ethics: Decolonizing Justice (Routledge Studies in Penal Abolition and Transformative Justice)
by Mechthild NagelLudic Ubuntu Ethics develops a positive peace vision, taking a bold look at African and Indigenous justice practices and proposes new relational justice models. ‘Ubuntu’ signifies shared humanity, presenting us a sociocentric perspective of life that is immensely helpful in rethinking the relation of offender and victim. In this book, Nagel introduces a new theoretical liberation model—ludic Ubuntu ethics—to showcase five different justice conceptions through a psychosocial lens, allowing for a contrasting analysis of negative Ubuntu (eg., through shaming and separation) towards positive Ubuntu (eg., mediation, healing circles, and practices that no longer rely on punishment). Providing a novel perspective on penal abolitionism, the volume draws on precolonial (pre-carceral) Indigenous justice perspectives and Black feminism, using discourse analysis and a constructivist approach to justice theory. Nagel also introduces readers to a post secular turn by taking seriously the spiritual dimensions of healing from harm and highlighting the community’s response. Spanning disciplinary boundaries and aimed at readers seeking to understand how to move beyond reintegrative shaming and restorative justice theories, the volume will engage scholars of criminology, philosophy and law, and more specifically penal abolitionism, social ethics, peace studies, African studies, critical legal studies, and human rights. It will also be of great interest to practitioners and activists in restorative justice, mediation, social work, and performance studies.
Ludic Ubuntu Ethics: Decolonizing Justice (Routledge Studies in Penal Abolition and Transformative Justice)
by Mechthild NagelLudic Ubuntu Ethics develops a positive peace vision, taking a bold look at African and Indigenous justice practices and proposes new relational justice models. ‘Ubuntu’ signifies shared humanity, presenting us a sociocentric perspective of life that is immensely helpful in rethinking the relation of offender and victim. In this book, Nagel introduces a new theoretical liberation model—ludic Ubuntu ethics—to showcase five different justice conceptions through a psychosocial lens, allowing for a contrasting analysis of negative Ubuntu (eg., through shaming and separation) towards positive Ubuntu (eg., mediation, healing circles, and practices that no longer rely on punishment). Providing a novel perspective on penal abolitionism, the volume draws on precolonial (pre-carceral) Indigenous justice perspectives and Black feminism, using discourse analysis and a constructivist approach to justice theory. Nagel also introduces readers to a post secular turn by taking seriously the spiritual dimensions of healing from harm and highlighting the community’s response. Spanning disciplinary boundaries and aimed at readers seeking to understand how to move beyond reintegrative shaming and restorative justice theories, the volume will engage scholars of criminology, philosophy and law, and more specifically penal abolitionism, social ethics, peace studies, African studies, critical legal studies, and human rights. It will also be of great interest to practitioners and activists in restorative justice, mediation, social work, and performance studies.
Ludics, Dialogue and Interaction: PRELUDE Project — 2006-2009. Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #6505)
by Alain Lecomte Samuel TronçonThis volume contains the key contributions to workshops and meetings that were held within the context of the PRELUDE project. PRELUDE, an acronym for “Towards Theoretical Pragmatics based on Ludics and Continuation Theory”, ran from November 2006 to November 2009, with funding from the new French National Agency for Research (ANR). The objective of the project was to develop perspectives on Natural Language Semantics and Pragmatics based on recent developments in Logic and Theoretical Computer Science; the articles shed light on the role of Ludics in the study of speech acts, inferential semantics, game-theoretical frameworks, interactive situations in the dynamics of language, the representation of commitments and interaction, programming web applications, as well as the impact of Ludics on the fundamental concepts of computability.
Ludovico Agostini’s 'Imaginary Republic': Utopia in the Italian Renaissance (Palgrave Studies in Utopianism)
by Antonio DonatoThis book offers the first English translation and comprehensive analysis (inclusive of introductory study and endnotes to the translation) of the longest and most complex Italian Renaissance utopia, Ludovico Agostini’s Imaginary Republic. It not only reveals the significance of a text that has been mostly forgotten; it also shows how an investigation of Imaginary Republic uncovers neglected and surprising facets of Renaissance utopianism. The current scholarly image of Renaissance utopianism is based, predominantly, on English texts. Other European utopian traditions are considered only tangentially and do not substantially inform the overall picture of the nature of Renaissance utopias. This book’s study of Imaginary Republic, within the context of Italian sixteenth- and seventeenth-century utopias, contributes to filling this gap in the critical literature by expanding the current understanding of Renaissance utopianism.
Ludwig Binswanger and Fernand Deligny on the Human Condition: Wandering Lines
by Stéphane SymonsPhilosophical thinking allows itself to be nourished by seemingly non-committal exercises of thought but at the same time seeks forms of irrefutable knowledge. Because of this focus on both the subjective and the universal, philosophy also falls for the lure of the “what-if?” question. What if two legendary artists, writers or philosophers, who did not know each other, did enter into a conversation? In this book, Stéphane Symons outlines an (im)possible conversation between Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) and French educator, philosopher, poet and filmmaker Fernand Deligny (1913-1996). Although the two never met, this imaginary conversation can offer insight into both authors' thinking and the human condition. According to Binswanger, self-awareness and social consciousness are the most important and characteristic features of human beings. In contrast, from his contacts with children and adolescents with autism, Deligny emphasizes our ability to interact with the material environment, especially with seemingly insignificant things and nature. Bringing the two thinkers into conversation, Symons sheds new light on what it is to be truly human. In the process, leading roles are played by one of Binswanger's patients, Ellen West, and a young boy with autism, Janmari.
Ludwig Boltzmann His Later Life and Philosophy, 1900–1906: Book One: A Documentary History (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science #168)
by J. T. Blackmore2 But already he had done important work on thermal equilibrium which helped generalize Maxwell's distribution law. Indeed, there is part of a letter by James Clerk Maxwell to Loschmidt from this period which runs: "I am very pleased over the outstanding work of your student; in England experi mental physics is much neglected. Sir William Thomson has done the most in this connection, but you [in Austria] are ahead of us with your good example. "2 But while praise was fine, Boltzmann lusted after further travel. He wanted to know what other physicists were doing first hand. In 1870 he attended lectures by Bunsen and Konigsberger in Heid elberg, and in the same year went to Berlin only to scurry back to Vienna with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, but Boltzmann was back in Berlin the next year attending lectures, visiting laboratories, and working on dielectricity more or less under the direction of Kirchhhoff and Helmholtz.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Sammlung Metzler)
by Kai Buchheister Daniel SteuerMusik und Literatur. Sie spielen in Wittgensteins Denken ebenso eine wichtige Rolle wie Physik, Mathematik, Psychologie, Psychoanalyse und Anthropologie. Daher gehen von seinen Texten viele unterschiedliche Impulse aus. So bietet Wittengensteins Werk Ansatzpunkte von einander entgegengesetzten Standpunkten aus auf das Werk zuzugehen. Die vorliegende Monographie stellt Wittgensteins Philosophie verständlich und einführend und im Überblick erläuternd dar.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: His Place in the Development of Semantics (Foundations of Language Supplementary Series #3)
by T. De MauroVarious students of general linguistics and semantics quote and discuss Wittgenstein, among others, OGDEN and RICHARDS (1960), ULLMANN (1951, 1962), PAGLIARO (1952, 1957), WELLS (1960), REGNELL (1960) and 1 ZIFF (1960). For the most part however they quote the Tractatus and not 2 the Philosophical Investigations ; not all of them consider the most important ideas in the Tractatus but often discuss marginal points; above all they often make the discussion of Wittgenstein's ideas secondary to the development of their own thought. It should be added, moreover, that these students are exceptions. The large majority of language theorists, especially those with a philological background, have almost no know ledge of Wittgenstein's ideas. One scholar thinks that Wittgenstein's linguistic philosophy rests upon a grotesque misunderstanding of the workings of language (HERDAN, 1962, Chapter 24). The present book seeks to draw the attention of students of general linguistics and semantics to the thought of both the early and the later Wittgenstein: not only the Philosophical Investigations but also the Tractatus is concerned with everyday language: Wittgenstein was thinking of the propositions of everyday language, when he affirmed that the proposition is a picture of reality (Chapter 1). This conception is very old, it is in fact found in Aristotle and it dominated ancient, mediaeval and modern rationalistic thought; only Locke, Vico and Leibniz criticized it strongly (Chapter 2).
Ludwig Wittgenstein
by Miles HollingworthAfter his intellectual biography, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Miles Hollingworth now turns his attention to one of Augustine's greatest modern admirers: The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's influence on post-war philosophical investigation has been pervasive, while his eccentric life has entered folklore. Yet his religious mysticism has remained elusive and undisturbed. In Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hollingworth continues to pioneer a new kind of biographical writing. It stands at the intersection of philosophy, theology and literary criticism, and is as much concerned with the secret agendas of life writing as it is with its Subjects. Here, Wittgenstein is allowed to become the ultimate test case. From first to last, his philosophy sought to demonstrate that intellectual certainty is a function of the method it employs, rather than a knowledge of the existence or non-existence of its objects--a devastating insight that appears to make the natural and the supernatural into equally useless examples of each other. This biography proceeds in the same way. Scattered in every direction by this challenge to meaning, it attempts to retrieve itself around the spirit of the man who could say such things. This act of recovery thus performs what could not otherwise be explained, which is something like Wittgenstein's private conversation with God.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
by Miles HollingworthAfter his intellectual biography, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Miles Hollingworth now turns his attention to one of Augustine's greatest modern admirers: The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's influence on post-war philosophical investigation has been pervasive, while his eccentric life has entered folklore. Yet his religious mysticism has remained elusive and undisturbed. In Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hollingworth continues to pioneer a new kind of biographical writing. It stands at the intersection of philosophy, theology and literary criticism, and is as much concerned with the secret agendas of life writing as it is with its Subjects. Here, Wittgenstein is allowed to become the ultimate test case. From first to last, his philosophy sought to demonstrate that intellectual certainty is a function of the method it employs, rather than a knowledge of the existence or non-existence of its objects--a devastating insight that appears to make the natural and the supernatural into equally useless examples of each other. This biography proceeds in the same way. Scattered in every direction by this challenge to meaning, it attempts to retrieve itself around the spirit of the man who could say such things. This act of recovery thus performs what could not otherwise be explained, which is something like Wittgenstein's private conversation with God.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Meaning of Life
by Joaquín Jareño-AlarcónOffers new insights into how Ludwig Wittgenstein understood matters concerning the meaning of life. Widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein was deeply interested in the significance of religion and ethics. Although he did not systematically examine religion and the meaning of life in his major published works, Wittgenstein professed that he would at times explore fundamental issues from a religious perspective. Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Meaning of Life is the first compilation of private letters, remarks, and notes regarding Wittgenstein's thoughts and attitudes on ethics, religion, goodness, value, and moral action. With an academic approach, author Joaquín Jareño Alarcón reveals the significance of religion and ethics in Wittgenstein’s personal experience, corroborates the permanent tension between Wittgenstein and religion, highlights Wittgenstein’s preoccupation with the basic questions addressed by religious discourse, and more. Chronologically organized texts are accompanied by detailed commentary to illustrate how Wittgenstein’s interests in religion and ethics were reflected throughout his personal and intellectual evolution. Articulates Wittgenstein’s ethical point of view on religion Features a wide range of primary sources, such as personal commentaries, annotations, lecture notes, and diary entries Includes testimony of friends, students, and others with close ties to Wittgenstein Presents a balanced view of what Wittgenstein wrote and the recollections of others in his circle Discusses how the principal intention of Tractatus is to demonstrate the relevance of matters concerning religion and the meaning of lifeLudwig Wittgenstein: The Meaning of Life is essential reading for postgraduate and senior researchers, as well as advanced philosophy students and non-specialists interested in Wittgenstein’s more humanistic writings and his engagement with religion and ethics.