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Wittgenstein scholars disagree as to whether his work ought to represent an end to philosophy. Certainly, his work has a conclusive feeling about it. In the preface to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, he writes, “I am . . . of the opinion that the problems [of philosophy] have in essentials been finally solved.” If we wholeheartedly embrace his work, either Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus or his later writings, we will no longer be able to speculate about the problems of philosophy as thinkers have done for the previous two and a half millennia. However, it is far from clear that Wittgenstein intends for all philosophical activity simply to cease. Rather, he seems to intend a new role for philosophy, as an activity of clarification.
While the main target of this activity seems to be traditional philosophy, it would presumably continue to have a role even if everyone were to give up traditional philosophy. So long as we continue to think, we are liable to fall into intellectual confusion. While philosophy is a particularly rich source of intellectual confusion, no field of thought is free from confusion. In his later writings, Wittgenstein devotes a great deal of energy to picking apart the confusion inherent in the nascent field of experimental psychology. We might conclude that Wittgenstein does not want to do away with philosophy so much as he wants to reinvent it.
