Wittgenstein’s 'On Certainty'—Between Interpretative Questions and Theoretical Developments

Dear Colleagues,

Given your well-known expertise on Wittgenstein's philosophy and contemporary epistemology, I am very pleased to invite you to contribute an essay to a Special Issue of Philosophies edited by me and dedicated to Wittgenstein's On Certainty. Below, you will find a brief description of the project and the topics that I would like to see covered.

In recent decades, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s On Certainty has attracted growing interest not only among Wittgenstein scholars, who have questioned, among other things, the place of these late notes by Wittgenstein in his overall philosophical production, but also among many epistemologists, for example, among those who have been prompted by Wittgenstein’s observations to develop what is now called “hinge epistemology” or among those who have found in On Certainty more or less strong arguments for or against scepticism or epistemological foundationalism. A sign of this interest is the new English translation of On Certainty by P. M. S. Hacker (2025 and the new translations announced in other languages (e.g., Italian).

This Special Issue on Wittgenstein’s 'On Certainty'—Between Interpretative Questions and Theoretical Developments, aims to bring together a series of essays that hat can provide a provisional but as comprehensive as possible assessment of the state of studies on On Certainty from both perspectives, i.e., from an exegetical-interpretative perspective and from a more strictly philosophical and epistemological perspective. Here is an open and non-exhaustive list of topics that the essays to be included in this Special Issue should focus on: 1) On Certainty: critical–philological issues. 2) What is the place of On Certainty in Wittgenstein's philosophy? 3) Is there a “third Wittgenstein”? 4)  Can we consider On Certainty a work by Wittgenstein? 5) On Certainty: interpretative issues. 6) On Certainty and the “New Wittgenstein”. 7) Who are Wittgenstein’s interlocutors in On Certainty? 8) Wittgenstein and Moore. 9) Wittgenstein and Newman. 10) On Certainty and the ancient and modern sceptical tradition in philosophy. 11) Wittgenstein and Descartes. 12) Wittgenstein and Hume. 13) On Certainty and the various epistemological schools. 14) Is On Certainty an epistemological text? 15) Theoretical developments starting from On Certainty. 16) The so-called “hinge epistemology”. 17)  What can an epistemologist learn from On Certainty? 18) On Certainty and relativism. 19) On Certainty and contextualism. 

Prof. Dr. Luigi Perissinotto
Guest Editor

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• Wittgenstein
• certainty
• doubt
• knowledge
• scepticism
• epistemology
• Moore
• hinge epistemology