Remarks on colour

Historical Significance: Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the mind, and language. He helped inspire two of the 20th C principal philosophical movements: the Vienna Circle and Oxford ordinary language philosophy. Professional philosophers his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations among the top five most important books in 20th C philosophy. Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences In the last few years of his life, Wittgenstein spent most of his time writing on the topics of certainty and colour. His remarks on colour were inspired by a reading of Goethe's Theory of Colour, but Wittgenstein does not think that Goethe succeeded in producing a theory, nor does he attempt to develop a theory of his own. Most of the commentaries suggest that the manuscript now published as 'Remarks on Colour' is unsystematic - a series of scattered remarks. But a recent commentator, Alan Lee, `Wittgenstein's Remarks on Colour' Philosophical Investigations 22/3 (1999), pp.215-239 has argued, to the contrary. This is publication is of previously unpublished manuscripts written in 1950 and 1951.