Ludwig Wittgenstein

From Philosophy Archive

Name: Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein
Region: Western Philosophy
Birth Date: 26 April 1889

Biography

Ludwig Wittgenstein (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was born as Ludwig Joseph Johann Wittgenstein in Vienna. His paternal grandparents, after they had converted from Judaism to Protestantism, moved from Saxony in Germany to Vienna in Austria-Hungary. Here is where Ludwig's father, Karl Wittgenstein, gained wealth and esteem as one of the leading businessmen in the iron and steel industry. Ludwig's mother, Leopoldine (née Kalmus) was a Catholic, but her father was also of Jewish descent. Ludwig was baptized in a Catholic church and would be given a Catholic burial by his friends when he died, although he was not a believing or practicing Catholic in his later life. Although numerous collections from Wittgenstein's notebooks, papers, and lectures have been published since his death, he published only one philosophical book in his own lifetime — the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. At first Wittgenstein believed that the Tractatus definitively solved all the problems of philosophy, and he subsequently gave up philosophical work for several years. During this time he worked as a schoolteacher, a gardener at a monastery, and finally as an architect for his sister's new house in Vienna. Eventually, Wittgenstein returned to philosophy and criticized elements of the Tractatus. The development of a new philosophical method and a new understanding of language would culminate in his second magnum opus, the posthumously-published Philosophical Investigations.

Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Sense and Nonsense

The Nature of Philosophy

Interpretative Problems

Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy

Transition and Critique of Tractatus

Philosophical Investigations

Meaning as Use

Language-games and Family Resemblance

Rule-following

Private Language, Grammar and Form of Life

The Nature of Philosophy

After the Investigations

Media

Images

Oil painting of Wittgenstein from the Granger collection	Wittgenstein's sister commisioned Wittgenstein to design this house in 1925	Wittgenstein's Gravestone in Cambridge	Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein

Audio

• Selected readings from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
• Ray Monk, Marie McGinn & Barry Smith, "Wittgenstein - A Philosophy of Linguistics" - BBC
• Juliet Floyd on Wittgenstein
• Barry Smith, "Wittgenstein's Conception of Philosophy"
• James Conant, "The Continuity of Wittgenstein's Philosophy"
• James Conant, "The Alleged Heresy of Mono-Wittgensteinianism"
• Alice Crary, "Wittgenstein and Ethics"
• Hans-Johann Glock, "Wittgenstein on Truth"
• Martin Gustafsson, "Explication and Philosophical Problems"
• Lars Hertzberg, "Trying to Keep Philosophy Honest: Wittgenstein's View on Philosophy"
• Jaakko Hintikka, "Wittgenstein's Unsolved Problem: How to be Guided by a Rule"
• Anthony Kenny, "Reflections on the Editions of Wittgenstein's Works"
• Oskari Kuusela, "Wittgenstein and the Concept of Essence"
• John McDowell, "Can We Conceive Meaning, Understanding, etc. as States of Mind?"
• David Stern, "How Many Wittgensteins"

Video

• John Searle on Wittgenstein
• Antony Quinton, "The Two Philosophies of Wittgenstein"

Bibliography

Primary Sources

• Tracratus Logico-Philosophicus - Wittgenstein
  • Introduction By Bertrand Russell - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Wittgenstein
  • Preface - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Wittgenstein
  • English Odgen Edition - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Wittgenstein

• Tractatus (Pears-McGuinness)
• Tractatus (Richter)
• Tractatus (German)
• Review of Coffey's The Science of Logic
• Notes on Logic
• Notebooks, 1914 (German)
• Some Remarks on Logical Form
• Lecture on Ethics
• Lectures, 1932-33 (Part I of Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1932-35)
• Blue Book
• Brown Book
• Philosophical Investigations
• Philosophical Investigations (German)
• On Certainty
• On Certainty (German)
• Wittgenstein Source

Secondary Sources

• Anscombe, G.E.M. (1959) An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, London: Hutchinson. (A stimulating, although in parts quite difficult, discussion of many of the central ideas of the Tractatus.) Read Online
• Baker, G.P. and Hacker, P.M.S. (1980, 1988, 1990) An Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, Oxford: Blackwell, 3 vols. (An immensely detailed commentary, informed by extensive knowledge of the Wittgenstein papers. The third volume is by P.M.S. Hacker alone.)
• Budd, M. (1989) Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology, London: Routledge.(A clear survey of Wittgenstein’s views on a variety of psychological topics.)
• Canfield, J.V. (ed.) (1986-8) The Philosophy of Wittgenstein, New York and London: Garland Publishing Company, 15 vols. (A useful collection of articles on all aspects of Wittgenstein’s philosophy.)
• Carruthers, P. (1990) The Metaphysics of the Tractatus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Contains extensive consideration of determinacy of sense and the related topic of simple objects.)
• Cavell, S. (1979) The Claim of Reason, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Subtle and stimulating book on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. The elaborate style takes some getting used to.)
• Fogelin, R.J. (1987) Wittgenstein, London: Routledge, 2nd edn.(A good general book, particularly helpful as an introduction to Wittgenstein’s treatment of logic and mathematics. Also contains a helpful bibliography.)
• Hacker, P.M.S. (1986) Insight and Illusion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn.(Another good general book, particularly strong on Wittgenstein’s treatment of the self.)
• Heal, J. (1989) Fact and Meaning, Oxford: Blackwell. (Further discussion of the themes of §§9-12.)
• Johnston, P. (1993) Wittgenstein: Rethinking the Inner, London: Routledge. (A reading of Wittgenstein’s later views on mind.)
• Kenny, A. (1973) Wittgenstein, London: Allen Lane. (The best general introduction.)
• Kripke, S. (1982) Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language, Oxford: Blackwell. (An exceptionally clear and gripping exploration of the idea that the rule-following considerations lead to scepticism about meaning.)
• McDowell, J. (1984) ‘Wittgenstein on Following a Rule’, Synthèse 58: 325-63.(In part a criticism of Kripke (1982), in part an interesting exposition of Wittgenstein.)
• McGinn, M. (1989) Sense and Certainty: A Dissolution of Scepticism, Oxford: Blackwell.(A clear account of Wittgenstein’s views on knowledge and certainty, expanding on the points in §16 above.)
• McGuinness, B. (1988) Wittgenstein: A Life, Young Ludwig 1889-1921, London: Duckworth.(Biographical study, containing much on Wittgenstein’s intellectual background which is not in Monk’s book and culminating on a chapter on the Tractatus.)
• Monk, R. (1990) Ludwig Wittgenstein, London: Jonathan Cape.(A full and illuminating biography.)
• Pears, D. (1987) The False Prison, Oxford: Oxford University Press.(A two-volume study containing much interesting discussion of the transition period and the private language argument.)
• Wright, C. (1980) Wittgenstein on the Foundations of Mathematics, London: Duckworth.(Extended exploration of the idea that * Wittgenstein should be seen as an antirealist or as a conventionalist.)