6. Reading Wittgenstein Between the Texts

Abstract

Sharing the “historicist challenge to analytic philosophy” (Glock) we investigate the philosophical production (and, to a lesser extent, some non-philosophical works as well) on Ludwig Wittgenstein from a distant reading perspective. First, we provide a description of the “Wittgensteinian field” by analyzing several data provided by the Philosopher’s Index, an electronic bibliographic database especially devoted to philosophy. Then we analyze these data by using statistical tools (such as for example topic modeling) and we interpret the results historically and sociologically, along the lines of Bourdieu on Heidegger, Lamont on Derrida, Gross on Rorty, and Collins on the whole philosophical tradition.