The Twofold Investigation

AbstractThis chapter steps back to explain why Wittgenstein engaged in two distinct projects in the rule-following sections of the Philosophical Investigations, and why he juxtaposed and even interwove those projects. The chapter begins by showing how anxiety caused by the abrupt termination of the Justificatory Investigation is helpfully allayed by the upshot of the Grammatical Investigation. It then explores how the twofold project helpfully exhibits precisely the overarching structure for addressing philosophical problems that Wittgenstein describes in his explicit remarks on philosophical methodology. Finally, the chapter notes how the treatment of the Justificatory Question can be viewed as Wittgenstein’s attempt to critique some of his earlier philosophical views in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.