Wittgenstein

NAME:

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Innovative philosophy involving logic and language

NICKNAME/ALIAS:

None

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:

26 April 1889, Vienna, Austria

DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:

29 April 1951, Cambridge, England. Aged 62

DISCIPLINE:

Philosopher

FIELD:

Philosophy

LANGUAGE:

German

PARENTS:

Father: Karl Wittgenstein

Mother: Leopoldine Poldi

SIBLINGS:

SPOUSE:

None

CHILDREN:

None

EDUCATION:

Technical College, Berlin

University of Manchester, England

Cambridge University

MAJOR WORK:

“Tractatus logico-philosophicus” (1921)

LIFE AND TIMES:

Wittgenstein became interested in the foundations of mathematics and read “Principia Mathematica”, the work on mathematics and logic written by <influenced by> Russell* in collaboration with the philosopher <influenced by> Whitehead*. Through this book, Wittgenstein became familiar with the ideas of <influenced by> Frege*, a logician at the University of Jena in Germany.

In 1911, Wittgenstein abandoned his aeronautical studies and went to visit Frege in Jena. Frege advised him to study logic with Russell at Cambridge and Wittgenstein spent 1912-13 working with Russell who was greatly impressed with his brilliant intellect and his dedication to searching for the truth.

Wittgenstein had already begun to write his famous “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”, the only one of his works he allowed to be published during his lifetime. At the end of 1913 he went to live in seclusion in Norway, where he continued to write in a hut he had built himself.

When the war broke out in 1914 between Germany and her allies, and Britain and France, he joined the Austrian army as a volunteer. He was commissioned in 1915 and served on the Russian front where he was decorated for bravery. In 1918 he was transferred to the southern front and was captured by the Italians.

He was imprisoned near Monte Cassino and although the war ended in November 1918 he was not released until August 1919.

He had continued to write down his philosophical reflections in notebooks he carried in his rucksack, and in captivity he completed his book. “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” is a short book written in the form of brief epigrams. It was conceived as a study of the foundations of logic and mathematics but evolved into a metaphysical investigation into the nature of reality.

Wittgenstein’s originality lay in his attempt to draw metaphysical conclusions from the language in which we express our thoughts about reality. He called words “simple objects” and stated that the way in which we combine words in a sentence adds up to what he called a “logical picture”. This picture, he stated, reflected reality.

After close analysis of the choice of objects and the structure of the logical picture, i.e. of the words chosen and the way language is used, Wittgenstein concluded that the logical structure which language shares with reality is revealed but that it cannot be stated. He maintained that after a certain point the attempt to find the logic which unites metaphysics and language will break down, resulting in nonsensical conclusions. This conclusion gave rise to the famous last sentence of the book: “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

Wittgenstein had considerable literary gifts and an ability to use metaphors in a compelling manner. His work is packed with stimulating observations on logic, mathematics, science and ethics, and despite his later renunciation of much of “Tractatus” its influence remained deep.

After his release from captivity, Wittgenstein gave away the money he had inherited, possibly influenced by reading the Russian novelist <influenced by> Tolstoy* on the Gospels.

He felt that he had made a seminal contribution to philosophy in his “Tractacus” and that no further solutions to the problems of metaphysics could be found, both ethics and metaphysics being finally inexpressible. He contacted Russell who promised to try and get the “Tractatus” published and then took a teacher training course.

For the next five years Wittgenstein concentrated on living a simple vocational life, working as a village schoolmaster in lower Austria in 1920. His genuine interest in his pupils and his ability to communicate with them were not enough to overcome the privations of his self-imposed isolation from his peers and his withdrawal from his own creativity. He was surrounded by a conservative bourgeoisie who did not approve of his educational methods and he became depressed enough to contemplate suicide on many occasions.

“Tractatus” was eventually published in both England and Germany in 1922. Wittgenstein was visited by philosophy friends, and the English economist <helped by> Keynes* funded a visit to Cambridge in 1925. In that year, Wittgenstein abandoned teaching and for a time worked as a gardener in a monastery.

From 1926-28, he lived in Vienna and occupied himself in designing a house in the city for his sister. It was a modern functional design, built of concrete, glass and steel. During this period, he engaged in philosophical discussions with a group of intellectuals who included <knew> Carnap*, and in 1929 he was persuaded to return to Cambridge. He was awarded a doctorate and given a research fellowhip at Trinity College where he started to lecture in 1930.

He had an intense approach which combined with his ascetism, morality and intellectual brilliance to make him a compelling influence on those he taught. He was also feared by many, having no time for the ordinary social graces – or the ability to deploy them. He came to reject his own earlier views (expressed in “Tractatus”) about the formal correspondence between language and reality, and also the idea that philosophy could provide a theory about the foundations of knowledge or the nature of reality. In this view, he was repudiating the aims of classical philosophy. He described metaphysics as “mental cramp”.

From 1930 onwards, he regarded philosophy as an activity he called “the critique of language”, and he maintained that this activity should be used to provide a logical clarification of thought. For Wittgenstein, there are no abstract truths existing in another sphere that can be isolated and stated; our conceptions about life arise from the language we use in relation to our actions in real life and to our reactions to real events.

In his “Philosophical Investigations” (published posthumously in 1953) he looks at linguistic structures and he undertook a remarkably detailed and penetrating scrutiny of the use of language in his theories of knowledge, logic and aesthetics.

He held that philosophers needed to broaden their outlook and his own influences included literary and religious writers such as St Augustine, <influenced by> Dostoyevsky* and Tolstoy.

Although he maintained that even his most devoted followers had misunderstood his work, it was Wittgenstein who paved the way for the rejection of traditional classical philosophy seen in the major twentieth-century.

He became a naturalized British citizen in 1938 and was appointed professor of philosophy at Cambridge in 1939. He was extremely keen to work outside academia as part of a personal war effort and served anonymously at Guy’s Hospital in London as a dispensary porter and then as a pharmacy technician.

In 1947 he resigned his professorship and went to live in Ireland. He spent six months in solitude in a seaside hut in Galway, Ireland followed by a spell in a Dublin hotel. In 1949-50 he spent several months staying with a friend in America at Cornell University. He returned to Europe because of health problems and died.

ASSESSMENT: One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Ludwig Wittgenstein, major modern philosopher

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ayer, A. J., Ludwig Wittgenstein, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1985

Monk, Ray, Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Duty of Genius, Jonathan Cape, London, 1900