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Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Vienna, 26 April 1889 - Cambridge, 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who mostly worked and taught at the University of Cambridge. He’s widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. | |||
Born into a wealthy bourgeois family, he soon became acquainted with the most relevant figures of Viennese “fin de siècle” culture (J. Brahms, G. Klimt, G. Mahler, K. Kraus). He completed his studies in mechanical engineering in Manchester, where he developed a keen interest in the works on logic and philosophy of mathematics by Gottlob Frege (1948-1925) and Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). He therefore moved to Cambridge in 1911 to attend the lessons of Russel, who immediately noticed his sharp perspicacity, as well as his troubled attitude. | |||
Later, he spent some time (1913-1914) in Skjolden (Norway) where his first works on logic appeared. At the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Austrian army. The war represented for Wittgenstein one of the most revealing experiences of his life. Amid the harshness of the conflict, his first and only published work – the ''Tractatus logico-philosophicus'', completed during his imprisonment in Cassino (1918-1919) – came to light. The book was published in a first German edition, disapproved by the author, in 1921 and later in the English translation by Wittgenstein’s friend Frank Ramsey (1903-1930) in 1922. | |||
Turning away from philosophical tought, from 1922 to 1928 Wittgenstein devoted himself to elementary school teaching in a small Austrian village, to architecture – he built his sister Hermine's house – and to working as a gardener in a convent. The interest which the newborn, neo-positivist Vienna Circle paid to his work elicited rather cold reactions from his part. | |||
However, in 1928 a conference at mathematician Luitzen Brouwer’s (1881-1966) house reawakened his interest in philosophy, convincing him to move back to Cambridge, where he obtained the teaching qualification. The years from 1928 to 1941 are remembered as a period of verification of the logical-philosophical thinking of the ''Tractatus'': starting with the ''Lecture on ethics'' (written and delivered in 1929), he revised and modified his ideas on language, logic, the foundations of mathematics, psychology, anthropology, and symbolic forms. The result of these reflections was collected in a series of manuscripts and typescripts (including the ''Blue Book'', the ''Brown Book'', the ''Big Typescript'', ''Zettel'') by Wittgenstein himself, or annotated during lectures, transcribed, and edited by his students. | |||
During World War II, he served in a civil hospital. He spent the period between 1947 and 1950 between England, Ireland, and the USA, where in the summer of 1949 he sketched out his ''On Certainty.'' But his best known and most memorable, albeit unfinished work from this period remains the ''Philosophical Investigations'', which summarized the thinking of the “second” Wittgenstein and, upon publication in 1953, opened flourishing perspectives for contemporary philosophy. | |||
In his last years, he deepened his knowledge of Georg von Wright (1916-2003), Rush Rhees (1905-1989) and Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001), who later became the executors of his posthumous work. He died of prostate cancer in 1951 at the age of 62. | |||
His most known words: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (''Tractatus logico-philosophicus'', 7). His last words: “Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life". | |||
* Quick outline of his philosophy | |||
* About Wittgenstein’s works | * About Wittgenstein’s works | ||