Wittgenstein, Marxism, Sociology, Politics:
An Annotated Bibliography

Compiled by Ralph Dumain


“Wittgenstein was no philosopher.”

 — Herbert Marcuse, March 1979 *


Note: Annotations marked “abstract” are taken from other sources. Those marked “comment” are my own.

Books & Monographs

Basin, Yevgeny. Semantic Philosophy of Art, translated from the Russian by Christopher English. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1979. See Chapter II, section 1: Conceptions of the Language and Philosophy of Late-Period Wittgenstein.

Bernstein, J. M. Adorno: Disenchantment and Ethics. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Table of contents.

Bloor, David. Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions. New York: Routledge, 2002. (orig. 1997)

Friedland, Julian. Review, Essays in Philosophy, vol. 5, no. 1, January 2004.

Bloor, David. Wittgenstein, A Social Theory of Knowledge.  [Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire?]: Macmillan; New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

Cornforth, Maurice. Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy. 2nd ed. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1967 (orig. 1965).

COMMENT: Cornforth softened his dogmatism following the Stalin era, hence this and his work on Popper are most representative of his late views.

Cornforth, Maurice.  Communism and Human Values. New York: International Publishers, 1972. Reproduces with slight changes three chapters from Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy. See Chapter 8, Science and Evaluation, pp. 41-47.

Cornforth, Maurice. Science versus Idealism: In Defence of Philosophy against Positivism and Pragmatism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1975. Reprint of the 1962 ed. published by International Publishers, New York. 463 pp. Original edition 1955. Based on Science versus Idealism (1946) and In Defence of Philosophy (1950).

ABSTRACT: This book is an attack on the philosophy of the logical positivist and logical analyst schools. The author, a dialectical or scientific materialist, sees the positivist and analytical schools as implicit idealism. The discussion covers the historical context from Bacon to Mach and then turns to the twentieth century. the author concludes the work with a comparison of the logical positivist philosophy of science and his own philosophy of scientific materialism.

Cornish, Kimberley. The Jew of Linz: Wittgenstein, Hitler and Their Secret Battle for the Mind. London: Century, 1998.

COMMENT: Reported to consist of rampant speculation.

Danford, John W. Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy: A Reexamination of the Foundations of Social Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

Eagleton, Terry. Saints and Scholars. London; New York: Verso, 1987.

Eagleton, Terry; Jarman, Derek; Butler, Ken. Wittgenstein: The Terry Eagleton Script, the Derek Jarman Film. London: BFI Publishing, 1993.

Easton, Susan M. Humanist Marxism and Wittgensteinian Social Philosophy. Manchester, UK; Dover, N.H: Manchester University Press, 1983.

ABSTRACT: Although Wittgensteinian philosophy is usually presented as principally concerned with problems in logic and language, and committed to an ahistorical method, it is argued here that it shares with humanist Marxism a culturalist approach which is essentially to an understanding of social change. Wittgenstein's work is therefore situated in continental rather than Anglo-Saxon thought and Wittgensteinian ideas and techniques are employed in mounting a defense of the basic assumptions underpinning humanist Marxism.

COMMENT: For the most part, the characterization of Marx's views on ideology was very good. My only criticism here is Easton's rejection of the essence-appearance interpretation and notion that the allegedly single interpretation of reality that ensues is a bad thing. However, her attempts to find parallels in Marx and Wittgenstein don’t work for me.  True, there are some criticisms of Wittgenstein, but overall the comparative argument is shamefully lame.

Gedö, András. Crisis Consciousness in Contemporary Philosophy. Translated by Salomea Genin; edited by Doris Grieser Marquit. Minneapolis: Marxist Educational Press, 1982. (Studies in Marxism; v. 11) [Original German edition: Philosophie der Krise. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978.]

Gellner, Ernest. Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski, and the Habsburg Dilemma. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Mattick, Paul. “Blaming Wittgenstein,” The New York Times, January 17, 1999.

Gellner, Ernest. Words and Things: A Critical Account of Linguistic Philosophy and a Study in Ideology. London: Gollancz; Boston: Beacon, 1959.

Jones, Roger Bishop. Notes by RBJ on: Words and Things by Ernest Gellner. 2001/01/21.

Uschanov, T. P. The Strange Death of Ordinary Language Philosophy. 2001.

Heyes, Cressida J., ed. The Grammar of Politics: Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.

Janik, Allan. Essays on Wittgenstein and Weininger. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1985.

Janik, Allan. Style, Politics, and the Future of Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989. (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science; v. 114) See chapters 2, 3, 5: Nyiri on the Conservatism of Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy  (pp. 40-58); Wittgenstein, Marx and Sociology (59-79); Towards a Wittgensteinian Metaphysics of the Political (93-108).

Kitching, Gavin. Karl Marx and the Philosophy of Praxis. London; New York: Routledge, 1988.

COMMENT: This is a Wittgensteinian reading of Marx. I didn’t like it.

Kitching, Gavin; Pleasants, Nigel; eds. Marx and Wittgenstein: Knowledge, Morality, and Politics. London; New York: Routledge, 2002.

Kitching, Gavin. Marxism and Science: Analysis of an Obsession. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.

Kitching, Gavin. Wittgenstein and Society: Essays in Conceptual Puzzlement. Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.

Kolakowski, Leszek; Guterman, Norbert, trans. The Alienation of Reason: A History of Positivist Thought (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1968), pp. 202-206, 207-219. Originally published in Polish in 1966, revised and republished as Positivist Philosophy from Hume to the Vienna Circle, 1972. Extract (end of chapter 8, "Logical Empiricism: A Scientistic Defense of Threatened Civilization," and the concluding chapter).

Lukács, Georg. The Destruction of Reason, translated by Peter Palmer. London: The Merlin Press, 1980. See Lukács on Wittgenstein, pp. 782-784.

Manser, Anthony Richards. The End of Philosophy: Marx and Wittgenstein; An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at the University, 1st May 1973. Southampton, University of Southampton, 1973. 14 pp.

Marcuse, Herbert. One Dimensional Man. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964. See esp. chapter 7, The Triumph of Positive Thinking: One-Dimensional Philosophy.

Naletov, Igor; translated from the Russian by Vladimir Stankevich. Alternatives to Positivism, (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1984).

Chapter One: Between Science and Metaphysics, section 1: Metaphysics and Anti‑Metaphysics of Positivism, pp. 23-58. Most mention of Wittgenstein.

O'Connor, Peg. Oppression and Responsibility: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Social Practices and Moral Theory. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2002.

Pleasants, Nigel. Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory: A Critique of Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar. London; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Robinson, Guy. Philosophy and Mystification: A Reflection on Nonsense and Clarity. London; New York: Routledge, 1998. Publisher's description.

Rubinstein, David. Marx and Wittgenstein: Social Praxis and Social Explanation. London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this book is to describe a series of parallels between the   thought of Marx and Wittgenstein and to apply a synthesis of their views to various aspects of the debate between 'objectivist' and 'subjectivist' conceptions of social scientific explanation.

Schatzki, Theodore R. Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Contents.

Wiggershaus, Rolf, ed. Sprachanalyse und Soziologie: die sozialwissenschaftliche Relevanz von Wittgensteins Sprachphilosophie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1975. (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft; 123)

Wiggershaus, Rolf. Wittgenstein und Adorno: zwei Spielarten modernen Philosophierens. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2000. (Essener kulturwissenschaftliche Vorträge; Bd. 9)

Winch, Peter. The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 1990. (orig. 1958).

Journal Articles

Bakhurst, D. J. “Action, Epistemology and 'The Riddle of the Self',” Studies in Soviet Thought. O 82; 24: 185-209.

ABSTRACT: F T. Mikhailov's criticism of foundationalism and attempt to center epistemology on "action" rather than contemplation are discussed. His views on linguistic creativity and universality are treated in the light of Wittgenstein's rule-following arguments and his analysis of practical creativity, the dialectical interaction of subject and object, is approached by invoking a cognitive theory of reasons for action, thereby demonstrating the relevance of theories currently popular in the west to the study of contemporary Soviet philosophy.

Benton, T. “Winch, Wittgenstein and Marxism,” Radical Philosophy, no. 13 (Spring, 1976): 1.

Bernans, David.  “Historical Materialism and Ordinary Language: Grammatical Peculiarities of the Class Struggle ‘Language Game’,” Rethinking Marxism, 11, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 18-37.

ABSTRACT: Bernans's goal is to study the politics of "language games." Wittgenstein's post-Tractatus writings are, of course, the starting point for contemporary discussions of language games. However, in Bernans's view, the "metamodel" of equivalence/difference that he detects in the writings of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe should be counterposed to the "antimodel" that follows from Wittgenstein's own way of conceiving of how ordinary language functions when it is used to get things done in specific social circumstances. Bernans also finds that, when Laclau and Mouffe map equivalence and difference onto equality and liberty, they forget about class and confine political activity to a radical democratic project. Yet, in this case, because Wittgenstein is so focused on the dynamics of specific language games, "he offers very little in the way of direct insight into the politics and struggles" that emerge within and across such games. Bernans, therefore, turns to the work of the Russian Marxist philosopher of language V. N. Volosinov to find a way out of the dilemma. Using Volosinov's notions of speech utterances and genres, Bernans is able to map out the project of examining the political dimensions of the use of language: for example, the ways in which the dialogical process of surplus extraction—the "class-struggle language game"—is crosscut by and, at the same time, spills over into the nonclass language games associated with gender, race, sexual preference, and so on.

Colodny, R. “Marx and Wittgenstein,” Science and Society, 48, no. 4 (1985): 502.

Cook, Daniel. “Hegel, Marx and Wittgenstein,” Philosophy and Social Criticism, Fall 1984; 10: 49-74.

ABSTRACT: Several writers have recently claimed that there are definite affinities between Wittgenstein's (later) thought and that of Hegel and Marx, especially in their respective conceptions of dialectic, language and "praxis". I show that these purported areas of agreement between the Hegelian tradition and Wittgenstein are neither substantive nor illuminating.

Crippen, Matthew. “The Totalitarianism of Therapeutic Philosophy: Reading Wittgenstein Through Critical Theory,” Essays in Philosophy, vol. 8, no. 1, January 2007.

Danka, István. “A Natural History of a Lonely Man” (review of: Tamás Demeter, ed., Essays on Wittgenstein and Austrian Philosophy—In Honour of J. C. Nyíri), Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 60, No. 1/2, The Sociological Tradition of Hungarian Philosophy, June 2008, pp. 159-163. See also article by Bloor below.

Dejnozka, Jan. "Origins of the Private Language Argument," Diálogos, 66 (1995), pp. 59-78.

Eagleton, Terry. “Wittgenstein's Friends,” New Left Review 135, Sept.-Oct. 1982, pp.64-90.

Easton, Susan M. “Conventionalism and the Limits to Social Change,” Social Praxis, 1978; 5: 323-341.

ABSTRACT: In this paper we shall consider the relevance of Wittgenstein's work on nature and convention in an attempt to examine the possibilities for radical   social change envisaged by Marxism. As we shall see, Wittgenstein's work is of importance in the sense that, like Marx, he resolves philosophical problems by an appeal to practice. For Marx, of course, 'social life is essentially practical'. as he says in the 'eighth thesis on Feuerbach: 'all mysteries which mislead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice'. although Wittgenstein's views superficially bear a resemblance to conventionalism, it will be argued that he transcends both conventionalism and its opposite, naturalism, and points the way to an understanding of the nature and limits of social change.

Gandesha, Samir. “The Aesthetic Dignity of Words': Adorno’s Philosophy of Language,” New German Critique, no. 97, Winter 2006, pp. 137-158.

Hymers, Michael. “Wittgenstein, Pessimism and Politics,” The Dalhousie Review 80, 2, 2000, pp. 187-216.

Jones, K. “Is Wittgenstein a Conservative Philosopher?”, Philosophical Investigations 9, 4, Oct. 1986, pp. 274-287.

Karczmarczyk, Pedro. “Althusser and Wittgenstein: Ideology and Therapeutical Analysis of Language,” Rethinking Marxism, vol. 25, no. 4, 2013, pp. 534-548.

Kuchling, Heinz. “Ludwig Wittgenstein,” Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Philosophie. 1981; 29: 1404-1409.

Lamb, David. “The Philosophy of Praxis in Marx and Wittgenstein,” Philosophical Forum, Spring 1980; 11: 273-298.

ABSTRACT: This paper argues for the recognition of affinities between the later philosophy of Wittgenstein and Marx's philosophy of praxis. Beginning with an analysis of similarities between their rejection of contemplative epistemology   and classical empiricism we then examine the problem of conventionalism and the limits to spontaneity in the drawing up of new social institutions and forms of   life. Wittgenstein's refutation of solipsism is then compared with Marx's refutation of subjective idealism, and a Marxist theory of language is outlined. The paper concludes with a discussion of Marx and Wittgenstein's respective accounts of the relationship between philosophy and political activity.

Lugg, Andrew. “Was Wittgenstein a Conservative Thinker,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 23, 4, 1985, pp. 465-474.

Lyas, Colin. “Herbert Marcuse's Criticism of ‘Linguistic Philosophy’,” Philosophical Investigations, vol. 5, no. 3, July 1982, pp. 166-189.

Moran, J. “Wittgenstein and Russia,” New Left Review 73, pp. 85-96.

Munson, Thomas N. “An Interpretation of Hegel's Political Thought,” Monist, January 1964; 48: 97-111.

ABSTRACT: Hegel and Wittgenstein, notwithstanding the profound differences between them, were both deeply concerned with the question "what is explanation?" having argued elsewhere that this is indeed the core issue in Wittgenstein, Munson argues the same here about Hegel, in regard to the latter's political thought. after focussing on the relation of particular individual to state, the state as the embodiment of reason and the concretization of dialectic, he   concludes by spelling out ways in which Hegel makes common cause with Wittgenstein, and by raising various difficulties with Hegel over against Wittgenstein.

Narskii, I. S. “The Concept of Formal Analysis and Dialectics,” Soviet Studies in Philosophy, Spring 1964; 2: 45-56.

Pleasants, Nigel. “A Wittgensteinian Social Theory? Introducing Reflexivity to Marxism,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 26, pp.397-416.

Raatzsch, Richard. “Wittgenstein and Marx—Some Methodological Remarks” (in German), Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Philosophie, 1990; 931-939.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of the article is to show that there are more resemblances between Wittgenstein's and Marx's philosophical and methodological positions than are commonly assumed by Marxist and analytical philosophers. The object of the demonstration are especially the "Poverty of Philosophy", the "German Ideology" and the remarks on philosophy and philosophical methods in the "Philosophical Investigations". It is shown that especially in characterizing the aim and the methods of a self-standing philosophy Marx's and Wittgenstein's positions resemble one another.

Rasmussen, David M. “The Symbolism of Marx: From Alienation to Fetishism,” Cultural Hermeneutics, May 75; 3: 41-55.

ABSTRACT: This essay, part of a special issue on "the sociology of knowledge and Marxism," follows mannheim in searching for the 'constellation' constitutive of current social cohesion. Exposing the limits of analytic (Wittgenstein),  structural (Chomsky) and phenomenological (Heidegger, Eliade, Ricoeur, Schutz)  approaches to language, I demonstrate how Marx accounted for the cohesion of capitalism by shifting from the category of alienation to that of commodity fetishism. Noting the connection with Hegel, I indicate how the speculative anthropology of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau can be overcome and why the sociology of knowledge must accommodate economics to delimit distribution of knowledge.

Read, Rupert. “Wittgenstein and Marx on 'Philosophical Language',” Essays in Philosophy, vol. 1, no. 2, June 2000.

ABSTRACT: This essay gives a reading of Marx's unexpectedly Wittgensteinian remark, "The philosophers would only have to dissolve their language into the ordinary language, from which it is abstracted, to recognize it as the distorted   language of the actual world, and to realize that neither thoughts nor language in themselves form a realm of their own, that they are only manifestations of actual life." I argue that, far from their being a clash between the two (e.g., between “leaving everything as it is" and "the point however is to change it (the world)"), Wittgenstein and Marx are philosophical blood brothers. They share an analysis of what is wrong with the philosophical language they have inherited.

Robinson, Christopher C. “Why Wittgenstein is Not Conservative: Conventions and Critique,” Theory and Event, vol. 9, no. 3, 2006.

COMMENT: With advocates like these, who needs enemies? From the descriptions given here, it looks like Wittgenstein was locked into a narrow dynamic of positivism and anti-positivism. Robinson makes excuses for Wittgenstein’s anti-modern tendencies. (Note influence of Spengler and other reactionaries.) Robinson characterizes science as a bureaucratic, conservative force. He argues an affinity between Marcuse and Wittgenstein— Marcuse’s hostility notwithstanding—but Marcuse criticizes scientism from an opposite standpoint, opposing ordinary language as reified. Robinson disagrees with Marcuse, whom he sees as maintaining the elitist, privileged view of the philosopher against the ordinary consciousness. (He also suggests Adorno tried to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime in 1933.) Anti-abstractionism is seen by Robinson as democratic, allowing a plurality and cross-navigation of language games. But in the vernacular, I call this slumming. (27 Feb. 2008)

Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio. “Per un uso marxiano di Wittgenstein,” in: Nuovi argomenti, N. S. 1966. 187-230.

Rossi-Landi, Ferrucio. “Towards a Marxist Use of Wittgenstein (In Hungarian), Magyar Filozofiai Szemle, 1977; 346-378.

Schnädelbach, H. “Wittgenstein über die Philosophie: Sie lässt alles, wie es ist: Ringvorlesung über die 11. Feuerbach-These am 25.11.94: Histoire de la philosophie universelle,” Revue roumaine de philosophie et logique, 1996, v.40, no.3-4, pp. 317-330.

ABSTRACT: L'A. défend la thèse selon laquelle le jugement de Wittgenstein sur la philosophie: elle laisse tout comme cela existe (in "Investigations philosophiques,  124), ne peut être compris dans le sens d'une paraphrase de la onzième "Thèse sur Feuerbach" de Marx. Examinant le débat sur la tâche de la philosophie comme interprétation ou transformation du monde (O. Marquard), l'A. montre que les pensées de Heidegger, Adorno et Wittgenstein convergent vers l'idéal phénoménologique de la philosophie, ouvrant la voie au jeu des significations et de la différance.

Sen, Amartya (2003). "Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci", Journal of Economic Literature, V. 41, N. 4 (Dec.): 1240-1255.

Shaviro, S. “From Language to ‘Forms of Life’: Wittgenstein,” Social Text, no. 13 (1986): 216.

Smith, T. “Wittgenstein, Davidson and Analytical Marxism: A Comment,” Science & Society 58, no. 4 (Winter, 1994): 484-86.

ABSTRACT: Critique de l'article de G. Kirkpatrick intitulé "Philosophical foundations of analytical marxism" ("Science and Society", 58, 1, 1994, pp. 34-52) qui se propose d'établir un lien entre le marxisme analytique représenté par G. A. Cohen et J. Elter, d'une part, et la philosophie analytique illustrée par Wittgenstein et D. Davidson, d'autre part. La réponse de G. Kirkpatrick fait l'objet de l'article suivant intitulé "On analytical Marxism: reply" (ibid., 58, 4, pp.487-89).

Thomson, George. “Wittgenstein: Some Personal Reflections,” Revolutionary World, 1980; 37-38-39: 86-88.

Tomasini Bassols, A. “Marx et Wittgenstein: philosophie et société,” Studia Filozoficzne, 1987, no.12, pp. 123-135.

ABSTRACT: Rapprochement des deux penseurs: la théorie de la vérité ; la       perception ; théorie scientifique et explication, leur application à la société ; philosophie sociale et philosophie de l'histoire ; l'aliénation; le langage ; la philosophie.

Tomasini Bassols, A. “Marx y Wittgenstein: filosofía y sociedad,” Revista de Filosofía, July-August 1987, v.20, no.58-59, pp. 270-289.

Torbert, William R. “On the Possibility of Revolution Within the Boundaries of Propriety,” Humanitas [Journal of the Institute of Formative Spirituality] . Fall 1976; 12: 111-146.

ABSTRACT: The article traces the relationship between originality and conformity in a dialectical fashion. Referring particularly to the work of Bergson, Kohlberg, and Wittgenstein, the article argues that social norms are neither so clear nor so controlling as people ordinarily think. an individual or a society can develop a regular process of exploring the unknown—of exploring beyond explicitly structured experience toward new sources of mutual trust and authority. A table of institutions shows the ideal function of each major social institution in maintaining conformity to existing structures and in encouraging originality.

Tosel, A. “Marx, Wittgenstein, Arendt, Habermas,” Actuel Marx [Paris], 1999, no.25, pp. 11-151.

ABSTRACT: Dossier de la revue "Actual Marx" (25, 1, 1999, pp. 7-151) consacré à la pensée de Marx, Wittgenstein, Arendt et Habermas, publiant un choix des interventions philosophiques au Congrès Marx II sur la question de la raison et la problématique de la philosophie politique: 1) Présentation (J. Bidet); 2) Marxismes, néo-marxismes et post-marxismes face à la philosophie aujourd'hui en France (A. Tosel); 3) Formes de vie et praxis chez Wittgenstein: un clin d'oeil à Marx? (C. Chauviré); 4) Arendt, Marx et le mouvement ouvrier (A. Amiel); 5) Phénoménologie herméneutique et marxisme (D. Jervolino); 6) Dialectique de la nature: un noeud de questions à considérer (L. Sève); 7) Quelle normativité pour la critique du capitalisme : éthique ou morale?; 8) Habermas versus Adorno (J.-M. Vincent); 9) Morale, droit et démocratie dans la théorie politique de Jürgen Habermas (S. Petrucciani); 10) Lutte sociale et éthique de la discussion (Y. Cusset); 11) Habermas et la démocratie ou: faut-il réinventer la démocratie par le principe discussion et une politique délibérative? (A. Münster)

Vinten, Robert. “Eagleton’s Wittgenstein,” Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, volume 43, no. 2, 2015, pp. 261-276.

Vinten, Robert. “Leave Everything as it is—A Critique of Marxist Interpretations of Wittgenstein,” Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, 41: 1 (2013), pp. 9-22. Link. Full Text.

Wertheimer, Alan. "Is Ordinary Language Analysis Conservative?", Political Theory, 4, 4, Nov. 1976m pp. 405-422.

Zol, K. K. “Sur la philosophie du dernier Wittgenstein,” Voprosy Filosofii, 1985, no.5, pp. 138-142.

ABSTRACT: Sur D. Rubinstein, " Marx et Wittgenstein " (London, Boston: Henley, 1981)

Articles in Books & Other Essays

Adorno, Theodor W. "Introduction," in The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, translated by Glyn Adey and David Frisby (London: Heinemann, 1976), pp. 1-67.

Bloor, David. “Ludwig Wittgenstein and Edmund Burke,” in Essays on Wittgenstein and Austrian Philosophy—In Honour of J. C. Nyíri, edited by Tamás Demeter (Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2004), pp. 109-136. See also review by Danka, above.

Bloor, David. "Wittgenstein as a Conservative Thinker," in: The Sociology of Philosophical Knowledge, ed. Martin Kusch (Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000), pp. 1-14.

Cook, Daniel J. "Marx, Marxism, and Wittgenstein," in: The Tasks of Contemporary Philosophy, ed. Werner Leinfellner, Werner (Holder-Pichler: Vienna, 1986), 557-559.

Davis, J. “A Marxist Influence on Wittgenstein via Sraffa,” in Marx and Wittgenstein: Knowledge, Morality, and Politics, ed. Gavin Kitching & Nigel Pleasants (London; New York: Routledge, 2002),, pp.131-43.

Eagleton, Terry. “Ludwig Wittgenstein,” in Figures of Dissent: Critical Essays on Fish, Spivak, Žižek and Others (London; New York: Verso, 1987), pp.109-112. (Film review, first published as "A Suitable Case for Treatment" in the Guardian, 18 March 1993.)

Janik, Allan. “Nyiri on the Conservatism of Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy,” in Style, Politics and the Future of Philosophy (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989), pp. 40-58.

Janik, Allan. “Wittgenstein, Marx and Sociology,” in: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 1989, v.114, pp. 59-79.

ABSTRACT: Y a t-il un échange possible entre la philosophie marxienne de la société et la théorie des formes de vie chez Wittgenstein?

Kelemen, János. “What is dead and what is alive? Philosophical-historical Remarks on Rossi-Landi’s Sociosemiotics.”

Lichtenstein, Rosa. “Wittgenstein and Marxism.” 2006.

Monk, Ray. (1995), “Full-blooded Bolshevism: Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics,” Wittgenstein Studies 1, 1995.

Nyiri, J. C. “Wittgenstein's New Traditionalism,” in Essays in Honour of G. H. Wright, Acta Philosophica Fennica 28 (1976), pp. 501-512.

Nyiri, J. C. “Wittgenstein's Later Work in Relation to Conservatism,” in Wittgenstein and His Times, ed. B. McGuiness (Thoemmes Press,1998), pp. 44-68.

Ritsert, Jurgen. “The Wittgenstein-Problem in Sociology or: the ‘Linguistic Turn' as a Pirouette,” In: The Social Horizon of Knowledge (Rodopi: Netherlands, 1991).

ABSTRACT: Three main types of relations between the terms "language-game", "form of life" and "society" are shown in Wittgenstein's work. Their relation to specific social ontologies in sociology is documented. The thesis is that a dialectical type of relation between "Sprachspeil" and "Lebensform" seems to be most fruitful for current sociology.

Robinson, Guy. Essay Ten: Newton, Marx And Wittgenstein, in Philosophy and Demystification.

Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio. “Towards a Marxian Use of Wittgenstein,” in Marx and Wittgenstein: Knowledge, Morality, and Politics, ed. Gavin Kitching & Nigel Pleasants (London; New York: Routledge, 2002), pp.185-212.

Schulte, Joachim. “Wittgenstein and Conservatism,” in Ludwig Wittgenstein: Critical Assessments, Vol. 4, ed. Stuart Shanker (Australia: Croon Helm, Ltd., 1986), pp. 60-69.

Vallicella, William F. Adorno on Wittgenstein's Indescribable Vulgarity, Maverick Philosopher blog, April 17, 2006. Passage from Adorno's Philosophische Terminologie I with English translation & commentary.

Wellmer, Albert. “Ludwig Wittgenstein: On the Difficulties of Receiving His Philosophy and Its Relation to the Philosophy of Adorno” (1991), in: Endgames: The Irreconcilable Nature of Modernity: Essays and Lectures, by Albrecht Wellmer, translated by David Midgley (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998) pp. 239-250.

Wolniewicz, Boguslaw. “Wittgensteinian Foundations of Non-Fregean Logic,” in Contemporary East European Philosophy, Vol. 3, edited by Edward D'Angelo, David DeGrood, and Dale Riepe (Bridgeport, CT: Spartacus Books, 1971), pp. 231-243.

Web Sites

@nti-Dialectics, by Rosa Lichtenstein, a Wittgensteinian Trotskyist.

The Ernest Gellner Resource Page

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Marx and Marxism Web Guide



* Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse. Volume 6: Marxism, Revolution and Utopia; edited by Douglas Kellner and Clayton Pierce (London; New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 420.


(2/5/07; rev. 3/24/07, 4/18/07, 5/2/07, 7/16/07, 1/18/08, 2/27/08, 9/10/08, 1/1/10, 4/8/10, 4/15/10, 7/23/10, 8/9/10, 7/11/13, 5/20/14, 1/5/15. 9/19/15, 5/22/16, 2/23/18, 4/30/18, 12/2/18, 10/27/19, 2/4/21, 1/15/22, 6/19/22)

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Uploaded 5 February 2007
Quote added 15 January 2022
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