No Nonsense Wittgenstein

Abstract

A landscape is presented in which the difficulty of receiving Wittgenstein, the
therapeutic interpretation of his work and the difficulty of receiving the
therapeutic interpretation are reference points. Cora Diamond is singled out as one
important representative of the therapeutic interpretation. Her ideas about the
lasting importance that Wittgenstein attached to the philosophy of logic and
Wittgenstein's enduring allegiance to a Fregean distinction between the logical and
the psychological are introduced and some details of her argument are examined
critically. In the light of the foregoing it is suggested that some problems endemic
to the therapeutic reading of Wittgenstein can be resolved if we attend to the
advantages of the polyphonic mode characteristic of his Philosophical Investigations,
Part 1.