Books by
Robert Greenleaf Brice
WITTGENSTEIN'S ON CERTAINTY: INSIGHT & METHOD
From the Preface
In On Certainty, the important, but to many readers obscure, twentieth century Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, provides not only a brilliant solution to a previously intractable philosophical problem, but also the elements of an entirely new way of approaching this and similar longstanding, apparently un-resolvable, problems. In these notes he re-conceives the problem of radical skepticism–the claim that we can never really be certain of anything except the contents of our own minds–as a kind of philosophical “disease” of thought. His approach to the problem, which I will emphasize is similar to the treatment of disease, has two main goals:
(1) bring about an awareness in the philosopher that this kind of extreme skepticism is not a methodological approach to be taken seriously, and, with this awareness,
(2) an attempt to reshape this radical skepticism with a practical, Common Sense framework.
Implicit in Wittgenstein’s approach are a number of strategies found in a contemporary approach to psychotherapy known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). These strategies, along with philosophical methods and scientific practices rooted in the Scottish School of Common Sense, seek to diagnose and treat irrational thoughts and beliefs that often emerge (and re-emerge) in the discipline of philosophy. The aim is to provide the philosopher with tools necessary to adjust and reshape these irrational, self-defeating thoughts and beliefs into something new, something healthy.
EXPLORING CERTAINTY: WITTGENSTEIN & WIDE FIELDS OF THOUGHT
Professional Review of Exploring Certainty:
“This brief book of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty lives up to its subtitle. The ‘fields of thought’ it covers are indeed wide; they include epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, religion, cognitive science, mathematics, psychotherapy and even Wittgenstein’s political views. Brice successfully shows the broad reach of Wittgenstein’s ideas...Brice [also] demonstrates a familiarity with an impressive range of philosophical and other topics. His book is clearly written and accessible to a wide range of scholars, not just Wittgenstein scholars, and it might even interest some scholars outside of philosophy, such as those in any of the “fields of thought” upon which it touches...[This] interpretation is worth understanding, and Brice’s book offers a concise introduction to it, as well as some interesting developments of it.” Philosophical Investigations 2016, Volume 39, Issue 1, pp. 88-92.