Wittgenstein and the Method of von Wright’s Varieties of Goodness

There has been a recent revival of interest in the relationship between Wittgenstein and von Wright’s Varieties of Goodness. In this paper, I discuss some early versions of the published text which make clear that Wittgenstein’s influence is indeed behind many claims made in the Varieties. On the one hand, there is a reaction to the Tractarian transcendentalism as a form of essentialism. On the other hand, there is an endorsement of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, particularly of the conceptual investigations carried out after the “Blue Book”, with the notion of “family-resemblance” assuming a particular significance in von Wright’s descriptive method.