Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein signature

Karl Wittgenstein

Palais Wittgenstein 03

1. The infant Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig as a child

The Wittgensteins 1890

Ludwig Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considered one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th century. Wittgenstein's philosophical career is often divided into two periods: the "early" period, exemplified by the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and the "later" period, best represented by the Philosophical Investigations.

Early Life

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was born in Vienna, Austria, into one of the wealthiest families in Europe. He was the youngest of eight children. His father, Karl Wittgenstein, was an industrialist, and his mother, Leopoldine (née Kalmus), was a patron of the arts. Wittgenstein was educated at home until the age of 14, after which he attended a school in Linz. He later studied mechanical engineering in Berlin and aeronautical engineering in Manchester, England, where he developed an interest in the foundations of mathematics.

Philosophical Career

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Wittgenstein's early work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, was completed during World War I and first published in 1921. In it, Wittgenstein argued that the limits of language are the limits of the world and that language mirrors the world through its logical structure. He believed that most philosophical problems arise from misunderstandings of the logic of language. The Tractatus concludes with the famous statement, "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Later Philosophy

After a period of teaching in elementary schools in rural Austria and working as a gardener's assistant in a monastery, Wittgenstein returned to philosophy in the late 1920s. He was influenced by discussions with members of the Vienna Circle, but he eventually criticized their logical positivism. His later work, most notably the Philosophical Investigations, published posthumously in 1953, critiqued the ideas presented in the Tractatus. Wittgenstein argued that the meaning of words is derived from their use in language games, a concept that forms the basis of his later philosophy. He explored the complexity of language, showing that our language games are interwoven with our life's activities and are not grounded in a logical essence.

Legacy

Wittgenstein's work has influenced various fields beyond philosophy, including the cognitive sciences, linguistics, and computer science. His ideas on language and its relation to reality and thought have been foundational in the development of theories in the philosophy of language and mind.

Selected Works

• Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)
• Philosophical Investigations (1953)

See Also

• Philosophy of language
• Analytic philosophy
• Vienna Circle