French Literature Reviews - 2026
Élise Marrou, Wittgenstein
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) grew up in fin-de-siècle Vienna before moving to England to pursue studies in aeronautical engineering. He subsequently transitioned to philosophy, driven by questions concerning logic and the foundations of mathematics. Indeed, according to him, we enter philosophy by stumbling upon specific problems rather than through the serene progression of academic work. From his early war notebooks to his final remarks on certainty, Wittgenstein relentlessly confronts a series of problems that he strips down and reformulates. A ventriloquist philosopher above all, he draws on ancient voices—Plato’s in particular—to address the difficult questions of "rule-following," the chimera of a "private language," or the singular authority of the mouth that utters "I."
This volume aims to introduce the method of "language-games" and the modeling that underlies it, in order to grasp the guiding thread of the therapy deployed in the *Philosophical Investigations* and extended in his philosophy of psychology. The remarks that make up this final part of his work, written between 1945 and 1951, remain largely overlooked. Here, we outline their main driving forces, focusing our examination on the logic of our expressions and the reconfigurations of our relationship with the self.
A former student of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS Ulm), holding the *agrégation* and a PhD in philosophy, Élise Marrou is a senior lecturer at Sorbonne University, where she teaches contemporary philosophy. Recent publications: Wittgenstein en France (2022), Le Proust de Descombes : la prose des mondes (2023).
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Table of Contents…
Editions of Wittgenstein's works used
List of abbreviations
Chronological timeline
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. A zetetic approach
2. From the *Tractatus* to the *Investigations*: A single, unique method or distinct therapies?
3. From the *Investigations* to the late manuscripts on the philosophy of psychology
Chapter 1 – A Misleading Image of Meaning
1. The "lessons" of childhood (*Investigations* §1-45)
2. "Dream for dream (*onar anti onar*)“: The simples of the *Tractatus* put to the test of the *Theaetetus* (*Investigations*, §46-64)
3. Platonism revised and corrected (*Investigations*, §65-88)
4. Concepts and rules: Rule-following I (*Investigations*, §80-88)
5. Logic and the task of philosophy: From crystalline logic to the rough ground of uses (*Investigations*, §89-135)
6. Agreement in judgments: Rule-following II (*Investigations*, §136-242)
7. The chimera of a private language: Putting an end to solipsistic rhetoric? (*Investigations*, §243-427)
8. Myths of intentionality (PP §428-693)
Chapter 2 – The Description of Our Expressions: A Sensitive Logic?
1. The visible and the invisible
2. The postulate of "principial uncertainty"
3. "That would be a different type of man": From the logic of expressivity to the decent society
Chapter 3 – The Mouth That Utters "I"
1. First-person authority
2. Two limit figures of the relation to the self: Talking to oneself / Feigning
3. Life: Instructions for use
Reception and legacy of the later Wittgenstein
Conclusion
Glossary
Biographical notes
Bibliography
Index nominum
Index rerum
Ludwig Wittgenstein is a central figure in twentieth-century analytical philosophy, known for his shift from the formal logic of his early work to the focus on ordinary language and conceptual use in his later writings. The transition from the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to the Philosophical Investigations represents a major development in the field, moving away from a search for crystalline logical structures toward an investigation of how language functions within human social practices. This volume addresses the method of language-games and the modeling that underlies it, while examining Wittgenstein's reformulation of problems regarding rule-following, the critique of private language, and the nature of intentionality.
The volume focuses on the later manuscripts and the philosophy of psychology, written between 1945 and 1951, which remain largely overlooked. By outlining the logic of expressions and the authority of the first-person perspective, the text examines how these remarks reconfigure the relationship with the self. Readers interested in the development of contemporary philosophy and the therapeutic approach to linguistic problems may find this examination of the Philosophical Investigations and subsequent manuscripts relevant.