WITTGENSTEIN:(NEW PERSPECTIVES)

About the Book:

This book is a collection of eight papers on wittgenstein, worked out during the author's Senior Fellowship of ICPR.

These are devoted primarily to Wittgenstein's Egology, his Transcendentalism, his attack on Frazer, and finally his notion of a "World-Picture".

About the Author:

SURESH CHANDRA (October 1930) did M.A. from Lucknow University (1955) and Ph.D. from Visva-Bharati (1968). He taught at Lucknow University, Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan), Burdwan University of Hyderabad, He retired as a Professor from University of Hyderabad.

Dr. Chandra was a British Council Visitor to Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh (1972-73), Visiting Fellow at IIAS, Shimla (1974-77) and a Senior Fellow of ICPR (1992-94). He was also the National Annual Lecturer of ICPR (1995-96).

Dr. Chandra spoke on Identity at Copenhagen (1973), on the Neurs at Zegreb (1988), on Wittgenstein at Kirchberg (1988), on Social Science at Brighton (1988). Austrian Ludwing Wittgenstein Society invited him to Chair a section in the Kirchberg Symposium of 1989, where he presented a paper also on Wittgenstein's Egology, He spoke on Scepticism in the Olympic Village in 1994.

Dr. Chandra is the Author of Study in Ayer's Epistemology (1970), Identity and Thought Experiment (1977) and Philosophical Discussions (1979) and has published a number of papers in the Indian and the Western journals of Philosophy.

This is the collection of my papers on which I worked, in the case of one paper re-worked, during the tenure of my Senior Fellowship of ICPR from February 1992 to January 1994. Every paper has a new theme to expose the ideas of Wittgenstein. All these papers have been presented at least once, some of them more than once, before the learned philosophers of India. The first five papers listed were presented as National Lectures of ICPR in the year 1995-96. But before that they were presented at the Department of Philosophy, Pondicherry University, and the Department of Philosophy, Calicut University. Only when I became confident about them that I submitted their collection to the Office of the ICPR.

A question may be asked: what is new about the perspective from which I have written on Wittgenstein? At least one thing is new, that I am an Indian, born and brought up in the Vedantic tradition, not the tradition that gave birth to Wittgenstein.

Since I became ICPR Senior Fellow in February 1992 I wrote more on Wittgenstein than that which has been included in this volume. Professor Daya Krishna has published in JICPR three of my lengthy discussions on Wittgenstein. 'Seeing and Seeing As: Pradhan and Panneerselvam' was published in Vol. XII, No.3, May-August, 1995. 'Some Remarks on Wittgenstein on Religious Belief and Superstition' was published in Vol. XIV, No.3, May-August 1997. The third was the review of Ashok Vohra's work, entitled 'Ashok Vohra on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mind', published in Vol. XV, No. 2,January-April, 1998. Very recently, only this year, Hyderabad Studies in Philosophy, No. 1 has published 'Attacking Modem Western Civilization: Mahatma Gandhi and Ludwig Wittgenstein'. This volume has the title 'Philosophy of Wittgenstein' and was edited by Professor R.C. Pradhan.

Though the project was submitted soon after my ICPR lectures in 1996, perhaps sometime in 1997, ICPR took a considerably long time in deciding to publish it. However, the volume is published now as it was submitted then. No new published or unpublished paper has been added to it. So also no substantial or non-substantial information has been added to any of the papers. Only some changes have been made in this Preface. These changes were required because of the delay in its publication. I must thank the ICPR and its present Member- Secretary, Professor R.C. Pradhan, for not persuading me to revise what I wrote nearly half a decade ago. Once a revision is made the originality of thought vanishes.

I would like to thank Dr. Raghu Ram Raju, who came to my rescue for reading the proofs. (Editing completely bewildered me. He struggled with the proofs one whole week.)