Pleasants Nigel. Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory: A Critique of Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar

Routledge, 1999. 222 pages.Wittgenstein is widely considered to be amongst the greatest of modern philosophers. He both revolutionised the subject of philosophy, and made a profound impact on many disciplines across the spectrum of the humanities and the social sciences. In this book, Nigel Pleasants examines Wittgenstein's influence on, and implications for, contemporary social and political theory. Nigel Pleasants focuses on the "critical social theory" of Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar - each one of whom have endeavoured to assimilate Wittgenstein's philosophy to their own theoretical perspective. The distinctiveness of this book's approach lies in taking seriously Wittgenstein's critique of traditional philosophy in order to attack the central "idea" of critical social theory: that a "critical" social or political theory requires a foundational theory of individual and social "ontology". Pleasants argues that critical social theorists' models of individual agency and subjectivity, and transcendental social rules, are both incoherent and irrelevant to social and political criticism. This highly regarded work provides an important new perspective for researchers and students of social sciences in general, political science, philosophy, social and political theory and sociologists.