Wittgenstein, mind and meaning

This title offers a provocative re-reading of Wittgenstein´s later writings on language and mind, and explores the tensions between Wittgenstein´s ideas and contemporary cognitivist conceptions of the mental. Williams´s theme throughout is the anti-individualism that she takes to underlie Wittgenstein´s criticism of Cartesian thought. This book lays the foundation for a social conception of mind. This book addresses both Wittgenstein´s later works as well as contemporary issues in philosophy of mind. It provides an insight into the later Wittgenstein and raises vital questions about the foundations of cognitivism and its wider implications for psychology and cognitive science.
Contents: Part 1 Against the philosophic tradition: Wittgenstein on representations, privileged objects, and private languages; private states and public practices - Wittgenstein and Schutz on intentionalty; Wittgenstein, Kant, and the "metaphysics of experience"; language learning and the representational theory of mind - postscript to Chapter 4; social norms and narrow content. Part 2 A new direction: rules, community, and the individual; the philosophical significance of learning in the later Wittgenstein; the etiology of the obvious - Wittgenstein and the elimination of indeterminacy; Wittgenstein´s rejection of scientific psychology; Vygotsky´s social theory of mind.