Wittgenstein

Contemporary philosophy

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the towering figures of analytic philosophy. His work on the philosophy of language and the foundations of mathematics earned the admiration of Russell and the Vienna Circle. After writing the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, he abandoned philosophy for a time, before a fundamental reassessment led him to write the Philosophical Investigations.

Bibliography

Here are the essential books if you wish to gain a better understanding of this author's thought:

Sluga, Hans; Stern, David G. (1996). The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein. Cambridge University Press
Crary, Alice; Reed, Rupert (2000). The New Wittgenstein. Routledge
Flowers, F.A. III; Ground, Ian (2015). Portraits of Wittgenstein, Volume 1. Bloomsbury Academic
Kenny, Anthony (1984). The Legacy of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Klagge, James Carl, ed. (2001). Wittgenstein: Biography and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

Biography: Life of Wittgenstein

Youth

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, in 1889, into a large family of wealthy and cultivated industrialists. Music played a prominent role in their lives: great musicians such as Brahms and Mahler were regular guests.

In this environment, creative talent flourished: one of Wittgenstein's brothers became a virtuoso pianist. The family also experienced profound tragedy, including the suicides of three of Ludwig's brothers. From a very early age, he was tormented by doubt and questioned the nature of truth and his own existence. Extremely demanding of himself and others, he took a harsh, critical view of the world — a trait he would retain throughout his life.

He studied at school in Linz before going to Berlin to study mechanical engineering. As part of his course, he came to England: at the University of Manchester, he worked in an aeronautical engineering laboratory, designing and personally testing a new propeller model.

Towards the Writing of the Tractatus

His studies drew him towards the problem of the foundations of mathematics. In Germany, he studied under Frege, who encouraged him to attend the lectures of Russell, author of the celebrated Principia Mathematica. He took this advice and enrolled at Cambridge in 1911, where he met Russell and Moore and worked on the foundations of mathematical logic.

Craving a more stimulating environment, he left the university and withdrew to a cabin in Norway. In this self-imposed exile, he found the time and inspiration to pursue his reflections and wrote his first book, Notes on Logic.

During the First World War, he served on the Russian front and was awarded several medals for his courage. He kept a diary that sheds a striking light on his personality, and converted to Christianity. It was during this period — hardly conducive to philosophical reflection, at the front — that he wrote the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Taken prisoner by the Italians, he nonetheless managed to send his manuscript to Russell, who worked to secure its publication in 1922.

Convinced that this work had definitively resolved all the philosophical problems that could be posed, Wittgenstein abandoned philosophy and sought a new direction.

Wandering

He became a primary school teacher, but his exacting nature eventually led him to resign.

He worked for a time as a gardener's assistant at a monastery, which led him to consider entering the religious life — though this came to nothing.

He was contacted by Moritz Schlick, the leading figure of the nascent Vienna Circle, whose members were keenly interested in the Tractatus, and a series of meetings was arranged. Wittgenstein eventually concluded, however, that they had misunderstood his thought — particularly on account of their indifference to the ethical and religious dimensions of the Tractatus — and broke off contact.

These stimulating discussions had nonetheless rekindled his interest in philosophy. He began to suspect a fundamental error in the Tractatus. For a mind as exacting — not to say perfectionist — as his, the thought that his work might need to be revised was intolerable, and it drove him back to his reflections. These took an entirely new direction, leading him to rethink his conception of language.

The Return to Philosophy

In 1929, he returned to Cambridge, where he was welcomed triumphantly. Though he initially enrolled as an ordinary student, he was soon awarded a doctorate in philosophy, with the Tractatus itself serving as his thesis.

He travelled to Russia, Norway and Ireland, and worked on the manuscript of the Philosophical Investigations — a work that some thinkers regard as more important than the Tractatus itself. In 1939, he reached a significant milestone: he was appointed to the chair of philosophy at Cambridge.

A few years later, however, he resigned, having concluded that the university was not the right setting for developing his thought. He withdrew once more to Ireland and other remote places to write the final pages of the Philosophical Investigations.

He died in 1951 at Cambridge.

Main Works

Private Notebooks, 1914–1916
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Philosophical Grammar
Philosophical Investigations
The Blue Book
The Brown Book