Wittgenstein, Plato and the Craving for Generality

One could say that the main feature of Plato’s metaphysics is the priority of universals and of the knowledge of universals (as stressed, for instance, by the theory of recollection) over particulars and the knowledge of particulars. This view, which has provided a basic starting point for western metaphysical thought up to the ‘renversement du platonisme’ shared by a great part of contemporary philosophers, has been seriously challenged by Ludwig Wittgenstein. This chapter aims at showing that this opposition is not so simple and neat as it might at first seem. Even if from a general point of view Wittgenstein’s position provides a typical case of anti-Platonism, a deeper analysis reveals a much more complex situation.