Introduction

Abstract

The present volume examines and discusses different and seminal ways in which colours matter in the development of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. “Colours spur us to philosophize”, he once noted. Throughout his philosophical career, the theme of colours was one to which he returned constantly. Each chapter of the present volume was thought to provide a philosophical analysis of one or more cases in which Wittgenstein addresses a problem involving colours. Our volume investigates Wittgenstein’s philosophy from his Notebooks 1914–1916 and the TLP to his posthumous writings on Goethe and on Moore published as Remarks on Colours and On Certainty. Special attention is devoted to the so-called intermediary period, after the full acknowledgment of the colour exclusion problem which represented the first great challenge to his first philosophy. Texts from his intermediary period, such as Some remarks on logical form and Philosophical Remarks until his Big Typescript, are explored since both his views about philosophical problems and his view on colours changed considerably.