Wittgenstein

The word ‘theory’ covers a multitude of virtues and vices, sometimes counting as knowledge and sometimes contrasting with knowledge.  But theory is as important as observation in science, and we all take force, gravity, electrons, mass, and continental drift as genuine aspects of reality even though they are theoretical rather than observational (empirical) features.  We all also recognize that the concept of “luminiferous ether” that was generally accepted ast the outset of the nineteenth century is a theoretical concept that was discarded because of the Michelson-Morley experiment. 

How Wittgenstein completed the linguistic turn, replacing analysis with grammar as method, replacing knowledge with clarity as goal. 

Introduction:

The book Derrida and Wittgenstein, which I wrote with Seung-Chong Lee, was published in 1994 and then translated into Korean, where it has had greater success than in the US.  It is now to have a second Korean edition, and the following is my contribution to the Preface of that second edition.  -- NG