Wittgenstein and Family Resemblance
A little while back I got into a discussion of Wittgenstein at PhilPapers . The issue was mainly about whether or not the instigator of the discussion, Professor Jim Stone, had successfully undermined Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblance in a paper he had published in the '90s. (Professor Stone started the discussion thread because he felt his paper had gone unnoticed in the annals of philosophical research, and that it deserved more attention.) Though the notion of family resemblance is more or less well-established in some circles, Professor Stone (wrongly) claims that it is supported solely by the discussion of games and numbers found in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations . ( The most immediately relevant sections of the Investigations can be found online, with commentary by Lois Shawver, here .--I have not read Shawver's commentary, however, so do not assume I agree with it.) Stone says that W.'s point about numbers is not commonly respect...