Peter Hacker / Severin Schroeder

12.30 – 2.00pm | Wednesday 24 February 2010
Room NAB 1.15, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, LSE

Speakers
P. M. S. Hacker, Emeritus Research Fellow, St John’s College, University of Oxford
Severin Schroeder, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Reading

There are few people who can be said to have provided an interpretation of a great work of philosophy that has significantly shaped its reception. Through his own research and in work developed in collaboration with his former colleague Gordon Baker, Peter Hacker’s writings on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations have done that. Having achieved the status of what is sometimes called the ‘orthodox’ interpretation of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, he has provided by far the most comprehensive and in-depth work of Wittgenstein scholarship to date, including a four-volume commentary on the Philosophical Investigations that has influenced a generation of readers. Through his meticulous textual readings and crystal clear interpretations of the pivotal ideas and arguments involved in Wittgenstein’s conceptual investigations, Peter Hacker, perhaps more than anyone else, has provided a point of departure for an assessment of Wittgenstein’s work that cannot be ignored. This dialogue reflected on his career in philosophy and his distinctive approach to Wittgenstein.