Philosophischen Untersuchungen

[o j m]

>Popper, Russell, Toulmin and numerous other major analytical types 
>dismissed the PI;

And many other major analytical types--Sellars, Kripke, Davidson, etc.--has 
praised the PI.  Shortly after the Tractatus was published Wittgenstein 
dismissed Russell as "superficial."  So what?

>  numerous students and associates of Wittgenstein asserted that Professor 
> Ludwig of the 30s and 40s was mostly a charlatan, if not an outright 
> mental case.   He certainly had some problems.  The Tractatus is 
> considered profound and important, at least in philosophy departments.

And the Investigations aren't?  They most certainly were in the department 
I was in as an undergraduate.  In fact, they were taken to be more 
important and generative than the Tractatus.  For someone who goes on and 
on about establishment hypocrites, you sure justify yourself through the 
universities quite a bit (and what are the universities but the 
intellectual establishment?).  If you want to critique the universities, 
fine--there are many good reasons for such a critique--but don't then turn 
and tell people they need to take classes to reach your level of 
understanding.  Talk about hypocritical.

>  The poker incident at Cambridge--in which LW may or may not have 
> threatened Sir Karl Popper with a fire poker  after Popper made a 
> disparaging  comment about LW, shows him to be if not a nutjob, at least 
> unstable.   There are some reports that Uncle Bertie denounced his former 
> prodigy at the poker incident  and took sides with Popper and Toulmin and 
> the anti-LW faction.

Again, this is a skewed view of the events.  Perhaps you just don't like 
the PI and want to forget that Wittgenstein did anything after the 
Tractatus?  I've read Edmonds and Eidenow's book (as well as McGee's) and 
their account of the incident in question is far less skewed than you 
present it as.  Of course there are legitimate criticisms of the PI; a 
worthwhile philosophical text is not one that is immune to criticism.  Just 
take a look at the mountains of books written about the Critique of Pure 
Judgment, or Aristotle's Metaphysics, or Frege's Begriffsschrift.  Great 
books in philosophy generate and push forward discussion, not end it.

O.