Wittgenstein on Sensation and Perception

Michael Hymers is Munro Professor of Metaphysics at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. He is the author of Philosophy and Its Epistemic Neuroses (2000) and Wittgenstein and the Practice of Philosophy (2010), and a past editor of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

• Preface1. Sense-Data and the Misleading Metaphor of Phenomenal Space2. Wittgenstein, Phenomenology, and Sense-Data3. Phenomenology, Grammar and Private Language4. The Grammar of First-Person Authority5. The Contemporary Debate about First-Person Authority6. Back to Sense-Data?7. Sensory Qualia

"Hymer offers detailed analytic reconstructions of Wittgenstein's texts and contemporary debates ... Readers with the necessary background will find it both useful and provocative. Summing Up: Recommended." – CHOICE"In this book, Michael Hymers highlights the diverse ways in which the mistaken picture of a private phenomenal space figures in arguments for sense-data and qualia. Hymers brings together a wide range of passages from Wittgenstein's later writings to show how they criticize this picture. This is a fascinating and hard-hitting selection." – Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Michael Hymers provides a sustained and valuable analysis of the metaphor of phenomenal space, arguing convincingly that Wittgenstein, from the early 1930s onwards, understood the pitfalls of taking this trope literally. One of the many virtues of Hymers’ work is that it draws attention to a highly productive but little understood period of Wittgenstein’s philosophical development, one that merits greater scholarly attention. Hymers’ meticulous study will be of interest to anyone seeking a better understanding of Wittgenstein’s early work on the grammar of sensation and perception." – Philosophical Investigations