Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; German: ['v? tg? April 26, 1889 - April 29, 1951) was an Austrian-English philosopher who worked primarily in logic, mathematical philosophy, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at Cambridge University. During his lifetime he published only one thin book, 75 pages Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), one article, one review book and a children's dictionary. His large manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. Philosophical Investigations appeared as a book in 1953, and has since been recognized as one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. His teacher, Bertrand Russell, described Wittgenstein as "the most perfect example I have ever known about a genius that is traditionally understood, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating."
Born in Vienna in one of the wealthiest families in Europe, he inherited wealth from his father in 1913. Initially he contributed to artists and writers, and then, in a period of severe personal depression after the First World War, he surrendered all the luck to his brothers, his brother. The three brothers committed suicide, with Wittgenstein reflecting on it too. He left the academy several times - serving as a front-line officer during World War I, where he was decorated several times for his courage; teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages where he encountered controversy for beating children when they made mistakes in mathematics; and worked as a hospital porter during World War II in London, where he told patients not to take prescribed medications while most attempted to keep the fact that he was one of the world's most famous philosophers. He described philosophy as "the only work that gives me real satisfaction".
His philosophy is often divided into the earliest periods, exemplified by Tractatus , and subsequent periods, articulated in Philosophical Investigations . Early Wittgenstein was concerned with the logical connection between the proposition and the world and believed that by providing an explanation of the underlying logic of this relationship, he had solved all philosophical problems. Wittgenstein subsequently rejected many assumptions of Tractatus, arguing that the meaning of words is best understood as its use in certain language games.
A survey among university and college professors puts Investigation as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy, standing as a "cross-cutting masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, engaging in various specializations and philosophical orientations "The Investigation is also ranked 54th in the list of the most influential 20th century work in cognitive science prepared by the University of Minnesota Cognitive Science Center. However, in the words of his friend Georg Henrik von Wright, he believes "his ideas are generally misunderstood and distorted even by those who claim to be his disciples.He doubts he will be better understood in the future.He once said he felt even though he wrote for people who will think in different ways, breathe the air of different lives, from people of today. "
Video Ludwig Wittgenstein
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The Wittgensteins
According to the family tree prepared in Jerusalem after World War II, Wittgenstein's great-great-grandfather was Moses Meier, a Jewish land agent living with his wife, Brendel Simon, in Bad Laasphe in the Kingdom of Wittgenstein, Westphalia. In July 1808 Napoleon issued a decree that everyone, including the Jews, had to adopt the inherited family name, and therefore the son of Meier, as well as Moses, took the name of his master, Sayn-Wittgenstein, and became Moses Meier Wittgenstein. His son, Hermann Christian Wittgenstein - took the middle name of "Christian" to distance himself from Jewish background - married Fanny Figdor, also Jew, who moved to Protestant before they married, and the couple established a successful business trade in wool in Leipzig. Ludwig's grandmother, Fanny, was the first cousin of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim.
They have 11 children - among them Wittgenstein's father. Karl Otto Clemens Wittgenstein (1847-1913) became an industrial tycoon, and in the late 1880s was one of the richest men in Europe, with an effective monopoly on Austrian steel cartels. Thanks to Karl, Wittgensteins became the second wealthiest family in Austria-Hungary, just behind Rothschild. As a result of his decision in 1898 to invest substantially in the Netherlands and in Switzerland as well as abroad, especially in the US, the family was protected from hyperinflation that plagued Austria in 1922. However, their wealth was reduced due to post-1918 hyperinflation and later during The Great Depression, though even until the end of 1938 they had 13 luxurious homes in Vienna alone.
Early life
Wittgenstein's mother was Leopoldine Maria Josefa Kalmus, known among her friends as Poldi. His father was a Bohemian Jew and his mother was Austrian-Slovenian Catholic - he was the only Wittgenstein non-Jewish grandparent. She is an aunt of Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Hayek on her maternal side. Wittgenstein was born at 8:30 pm on April 26, 1889 in the so-called "Wittgenstein Palace" at Alleegasse 16, now Argentinierstrasse, near Karlskirche. Karl and Poldi had nine children. There are four girls: Hermine, Margaret (Gretl), Helene, and Dora's fourth daughter who died as a baby; and five sons: Johannes (Hans), Kurt, Rudolf (Rudi), Paul - who became a concert pianist despite losing his arm in World War I - and Ludwig, who is the youngest of the family.
Children are baptized as Catholics, receive formal Catholic teaching, and are raised in an extraordinarily intense environment. The family is at the center of Vienna's cultural life; Bruno Walter describes life at the Wittgensteins palace as "the humane and cultural atmosphere that surrounds everything". Karl is the premier protector of art, commissioning the works of Auguste Rodin and the financing of the city's exhibition hall and art gallery, the Partition Hall. Gustav Klimt painted Wittgenstein's sister for her wedding portrait, and Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler gave a routine concert in the family music rooms.
For Wittgenstein, who highly values ​​precision and discipline, contemporary music is never considered acceptable at all. "Music," he told his friend Drury, in 1930, "stopped completely with Brahms, and even at Brahms I could start hearing the sounds of the machines." Ludwig Wittgenstein himself has an absolute tone, and his devotion to music remains very important to him throughout his life: he often uses examples and musical metaphors in his philosophical writings, and is very adept at whistling long and detailed. He also learned to play the clarinet in his thirties. A fragment of music (three bars), composed by Wittgenstein, was found in one of his 1931 notebooks, by Michael Nedo, Director of the Wittgenstein Institute at Cambridge.
Family Temperament and Brother Suicide
Ray Monk wrote that Karl's goal was to transform his sons into the commander of the industry; they are not sent to school for them to get bad habits, but are educated at home to prepare them for work in the industrial kingdom of Karl. Three of the five brothers then committed suicide. Psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald argues that Karl is a hard-hearted perfectionist who lacks empathy, and that Wittgenstein's mother feels anxious and insecure, unable to defend her husband. Johannes Brahms said of the family, which he visited regularly: "They seem to act against each other as if they were in court." The family seems to have a row of strong depression through it. Anthony Gottlieb tells the story of Paul practicing on one of the pianos at Wittgenstein's main family home, when he suddenly shouts at Ludwig in the next room: "I can not play when you are at home, because I feel your skepticism seeps towards me from down the door! "
The family palace houses seven grand pianos and each sibling pursues the music "with enthusiasm that, sometimes, borders pathologically." The eldest brother, Hans, is hailed as a magical musician. At the age of four, writes Alexander Waugh, Hans can identify the Doppler effect in a passing siren as a quarter-tone drop in the field, and at five o'clock begins to cry "Wrong! Wrong!" when two brass bands in the carnival play the same tone with different keys. But he died under mysterious circumstances in May 1902, when he fled to America and disappeared from a boat on the Chesapeake Bay, most likely having committed suicide.
Two years later, aged 22 years and studying chemistry at the Berlin Academy, the third oldest brother, Rudi, committed suicide in a Berlin bar. He has asked the pianist to play Thomas Koschat "Verlassen, verlassen, verlassen bin ich" ("Requested, left, abandoned me"), before mixing milk and potassium cyanide drinks. He has left several suicide notes, one to his parents who say he mourns the death of a friend, and another who refers to his "lecherous disposition". It was reported at the time that he had sought advice from the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, an organization that campaigned against Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, which prohibited homosexual sex. His father forbade the family from ever mentioning his name again.
The second oldest brother, Kurt, an officer and director of the company, shot himself on October 27, 1918 at the end of World War I, when Austrian troops he led refused to obey his orders and left en masse . According to Gottlieb, Hermine says Kurt seems to be carrying "... a disgusting germ to live in him." Then Wittgenstein wrote: "I should... be a star in the sky, rather than I remain trapped on earth."
Maps Ludwig Wittgenstein
1903-1906: Realschule in Linz
Realschule on Linz
Wittgenstein was taught by a private tutor at home until he was fourteen. Furthermore, for three years, he attended school. After the deaths of Hans and Rudi, Karl relented, and let Paul and Ludwig be sent to school. Waugh writes that it was too late for Wittgenstein to pass his exam for a more academic Gymnasium on Wiener Neustadt; because he did not have a formal school, he failed the entrance exam and just barely succeeded after extra tutoring to pass the exam for k.u.k. Realschule in Linz, a small public school with 300 students. In 1903, when he was 14 years old, he started three years of formal school there, living near the hospital at that time with his family. Josef Strigl, a teacher at the local gymnasium, the family gave him the nickname Luki.
Upon embarking on the Realschule, Wittgenstein has moved forward a year. Brigadier Hamann Hamann writes that he stands out from other children: he speaks German in unbelievably pure form with stuttering, elegant dress, and is sensitive and unfriendly. The monk wrote that the other children made fun of him, singing after him: " Wittgenstein wandelt wehmÃÆ'¼tig widriger Winde wegen WienwÃÆ'¤rts " ("Wittgenstein walked sadly Viennese-ward because of strong winds"). In the certificate leaving it, he received the highest score (5) in religious studies; a 2 for behavior and English, 3 for French, geography, history, mathematics and physics, and 4 for German, chemistry, geometry and free-handed images. He has certain difficulties in spelling and fails in his written German test because of it. He wrote in 1931: "My bad spelling in my youth, up to the age of about 18 or 19, is connected with the rest of my character (my weakness in learning)."
Faith
Wittgenstein was baptized as a baby by a Catholic priest and received formal instruction in Catholic doctrine from childhood, as was common at the time. In an interview, his sister, Gretl Stonborough-Wittgenstein said that "the harsh, severe asceticism, and most of their grandparents" were a powerful influence on all Wittgenstein children. When he was at Realschule he decided he had lost his faith in God and became an atheist. He still believes in the importance of the idea of ​​confession. He wrote in his diary about making great recognition to his elder sister, Hermine, when he was at Realschule; The monk speculated that it might be about losing his faith. He also discussed it with Gretl, another sister, who directed him to Arthur Schopenhauer World as Will and Representation . As a teenager, Wittgenstein adopted Schopenhauer's epistemological idealism. However, after studying the philosophy of mathematics, he abandoned the epistemological idealism for Gottlob Frege's conceptual realism. In recent years, Wittgenstein has greatly underestimated Schopenhauer, describing him as a "superficial" thinker of late: "Schopenhauer has a very rough mind... where the true depth begins, it will end soon."
Wittgenstein's religious faith and its relationship to Christianity and religion, in general (which he bestows sincerely and devotionfully) will change over time, like his philosophical ideas. In 1912, Wittgenstein wrote to Russell that Mozart and Beethoven were true children of God. However, Wittgenstein rejects formal religion, saying it is difficult for him to "bend his knees", though his grandfather's beliefs continue to affect Wittgenstein - as he says, "I can not help looking at every issue from a religious standpoint". Wittgenstein refers to Augustine of Hippo in his book Philosophical Investigations. Philosophically, Wittgenstein's ideas show a fundamental harmony with religious discourse. For example, Wittgenstein will be one of the fiercest critics of Scientism of the century.
With age, deep personal spirituality causes some explanations and clarifications, as he describes the language problem in religion, attacking, for example, the temptation to think of the existence of God as a matter of scientific evidence. In 1947, finding it harder to work, he wrote, "I have had a letter from an old friend in Austria, a pastor, in which he says he hopes my work will go well if it is God's will. that's what I want: if it is God's will. "In Wittgenstein Culture and Value, he writes," Is what I do [my work in philosophy] really worth the effort? if the light shines from above. " His close friend Norman Malcolm would write, "Wittgenstein's adult life is so characterized by religious thoughts and feelings that I tend to think that he is more religious than many people consider themselves religious." Finally, Wittgenstein wrote, "Bach wrote on his title page OrgelbÃÆ'¼chlein , 'For the highest glory of God, and that my neighbor can benefit from it.' That's what I want to say about my job. "
Effect of Otto Weininger
While a student at Realschule, Wittgenstein was influenced by the Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger in 1903 the book Geschlecht und Charakter ( Gender and Character ).
Weininger (1880-1903), who is also Jewish, argues that the concepts of men and women exist only as a Platonic form, and that Jews tend to embody platonic femininity. While men are basically rational, women operate only on the emotional level and their sexual organs. Jews, Weininger argues, is similar, saturated with femininity, without right and wrong sense, and not soulless. Weininger argues that man must choose between his masculine and feminine sides, consciousness and unconsciousness, Platonic love and sexuality. Sexual love and desires stand in contradiction, and the love between a woman and a man is therefore destined to experience misery or moral depravity. The only worthy life is spiritual life - living as a woman or Jew means one has no right to live at all; the choice is genius or dead. Weininger committed suicide, shooting himself in 1903, shortly after publishing the book. Years later, as a professor at Cambridge, Wittgenstein distributed Weininger's books to his confused academic colleagues. He said that Weininger's argument was wrong, but it was their faulty way of interest. In a letter dated 23 August 1931, Wittgenstein wrote the following to G. E. Moore;
Moore yang terhormat,
Thank you for your letter. I can quite imagine that you do not really admire Weininger, what with very bad translations and the fact that W. should feel very alien to you. It's true he's fantastic but he's great and fantastic. It is not necessary or impossible to agree with him but greatness lies in what we do not approve of. This is a very big mistake. That is. talking roughly if you just added "~" to the whole book it says as important truth.
In an unusual move, Wittgenstein took a copy of Weininger's work on June 1, 1931 from the Special Order Book at the university library. She meets Moore on June 2nd where she may give Moore a copy of Weininger's work.
Jewish and Hitler background
There is much debate about the extent to which Wittgenstein and his brothers, who of 3/4 of Jewish descent, see themselves as Jews. The problem has arisen especially regarding Wittgenstein's schooldays, because Adolf Hitler, for a while, is at the same school at the same time. Laurence Goldstein argues that "very likely" the children meet each other: that Hitler will not like Wittgenstein, a "brave, precocious, precious, new aristocratic man..." Other commentators have refused to be irresponsible and not knew at all the suggestion that Wittgenstein's wealth and unusual personality might have fed Hitler's antisemitism, in part because there was no indication that Hitler would see Wittgenstein as a Jew.
Wittgenstein and Hitler were born only six days apart, though Hitler had to sit down his math test before being allowed into the higher classes, while Wittgenstein was moved forward by one, so they ended up two separate classes at Realschule. The monk estimated them both at school during the 1904-1905 school year, but said there was no evidence they had anything to do with each other. Some commentators have argued that Hitler's school photos might show Wittgenstein in the lower-left corner, but Hamann says the photo dates from 1900 or 1901, before Wittgenstein.
In his own writings, Wittgenstein often referred to himself as a Jew, sometimes as part of a whipping. For example, while abusing himself as a "reproductive" thinker as opposed to "productive," he attributes this to his own sense of Jewish identity, writing: "The saint is the only Jewish genius, not even the greatest Jewish thinker "While Wittgenstein would later claim that" [m] thought is 100% Hebraic, "as Hans Sluga says, if so," He is self-doubtful Judaism, which always has the possibility collapsed into self-destructive hatred (as happened in the Weininger case) but which also holds great promise of innovation and genius. "
1906-1913: University
Techniques in Berlin and Manchester
He began his studies in mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg, Berlin, on October 23, 1906, staying with Dr. Professor's family. Jolles. He attended for three semesters, and was awarded a diploma ( Abgangzeugnis ) on May 5, 1908.
During his time at the Institute, Wittgenstein developed an interest in aeronautics. He arrived at the University of Victoria Manchester in the spring of 1908 to study a doctorate, full of plans for aeronautical projects, including designing and flying his own aircraft. He conducted research on kite behavior in the upper atmosphere, experimenting on a meteorological observation site near Glossop. In particular, the Royal Meteorological Society examines and investigates the ionization of the upper atmosphere, by suspending instruments on balloons or kites. In Glossop Wittgenstein works under Professor of Physics Sir Arthur Schuster.
He also worked on the design of a propeller with a small jet engine at the tip of his blades, something patented in 1911, and which earned him a research scholarship from the university in the fall of 1908. At that time, the design of a contemporary propeller was not advanced enough to actually embody Wittgenstein's ideas, and it will be the year before the blade design that can support Wittgenstein's innovative design has been made. The Wittgenstein design requires air and gas to be forced along the propeller arm into the combustion chamber at the end of each blade, where it is then compressed by the centrifugal force provided by the rotating and flashing arm. Timing vanes are usually wood, while modern propellers are made of pressed steel laminates as separate parts, which are then welded together. This gives the hollow blades, and therefore creates the ideal path for air and gas.
Working on jet propellers proved frustrating for Wittgenstein, who had little experience working with machines. Jim Bamber, a British engineer who was his friend and classmate at the time, reported that "when something goes wrong, that often happens, he will hug him, stomp, and swear volubly in German." According to William Eccles, another friend of that period, Wittgenstein then turned to a more theoretical work, focusing on the design of the propellers - a problem that required relatively sophisticated mathematics.
It was at this point that he became interested in the fundamentals of mathematics, especially after reading Bertrand Russell The Principles of Mathematics (1903), and Gottlob Frege's The Foundations of Arithmetic, vol. 1 (1893) and vol. 2 (1903). Wittgenstein's sister, Hermine, said she became obsessed with mathematics, and still lost interest in aeronautics. He decided otherwise that he needed to learn logic and mathematical foundations, describing himself as being in "a state of constant, ineffable, and almost pathological turmoil." In the summer of 1911, he visited Frege at the University of Jena to show him some of the mathematical and logical philosophies he wrote, and to ask if it was worth pursuing. He wrote: "I was shown in Frege's research: Frege was a neat little man with a pointed beard who bounced around the room as he spoke.He literally swept the floor with me, and I felt very depressed but in the end he said ' You have to come again ', so I am comforted I have discussed with him after that Frege will never talk about anything but logic and math, if I start with some other subject, he will say something polite and then plunge back to in logic and math. "
Arrival at Cambridge
Wittgenstein wanted to study with Frege, but Frege suggested he attend the University of Cambridge to study under Russell, so on October 18, 1911 Wittgenstein arrived unannounced in Russell's room at Trinity College. Russell was drinking tea with CK Ogden, when, according to Russell, "an unknown German appeared, spoke very little English but refused to speak German He was a man who had studied engineering at Charlottenburg, but during this course , by herself, a passion for mathematical philosophy & has now arrived at Cambridge in order to hear me. "He soon not only attended Russell's lectures, but dominated them. His lectures were not attended and Russell often found himself giving lectures to C. D. Broad, E. H. Neville, and H. T. J. Norton. Wittgenstein began following him after lecturing back to his room to discuss more philosophy, until it was time to have dinner in the Hall. Russell became annoyed; he wrote to his lover, Lady Ottoline Morrell: "My German friend threatens to be a victim." Russell soon believed that Wittgenstein was a genius, especially after he examined Wittgenstein's papers. He wrote in November 1911 that at first he thought Wittgenstein might be a crank, but soon decided that he was a genius: "Some of his early views made the decision difficult." He maintained, for example, at a time that all existential propositions were absent This is in the lecture hall, and I invite him to consider the proposition: 'There are no hippos in this room at the moment.' When he refused to believe this, I looked down at all the tables without finding him, but he remained unsure. "Three months after Wittgenstein's arrival, Russell told Morrell:" I love him and I feel he will solve a problem that is too old to solve... He is a young man he is looking forward to. " Wittgenstein then told David Pinsent that Russell's impulse had proved his salvation, and had ended nine years of loneliness and suffering, in which he constantly thought of committing suicide. In encouraging him to pursue philosophy and justifying his tendency to abandon engineering, Russell, literally, has saved Wittgenstein's life. The reversal of roles between Bertrand Russell and Wittgenstein soon took place as Russell wrote in 1916, after Wittgenstein criticized Russell's own work: "His [Wittenstein's] criticism, tho 'I do not think you realize it at the time, is a very important event in my life, and affect all that I have done since then I see that he is right, and I see that I can not expect anymore to do fundamental work in philosophy. "
Cambridge Moral Sciences Club and Apostles
In 1912 Wittgenstein joined the Cambridge Moral Sciences Club, an influential discussion group for don and philosophical students, giving his first paper there on 29 November of that year, a philosophy defining four minutes as "all primitive propositions deemed true without evidence by various science. "He dominates society and will temporarily stop attending in the early 1930s after complaints that he did not give others a chance to speak.
The club became famous in popular philosophy due to a meeting on October 25, 1946 in Richard Braithwaite's room at King's, where Karl Popper, another Viennese philosopher, had been invited as a guest speaker. Popper's paper is Is there a philosophical problem? , in which he attacked the position against Wittgenstein, argued that the problem in philosophy is real, not just the linguistic puzzle as Wittgenstein said. Accounts vary as to what happened next, but Wittgenstein apparently started waving hot poker, demanding Popper give him an example of moral rule. Popper offered one - "Not threatening visiting speakers with pokers" - at which point Russell told Wittgenstein that he misunderstood and Wittgenstein left. Popper argues that Wittgenstein 'stormed out', but it has become an accepted practice for him to leave early (because of his ability to dominate the discussion). This is the only time the philosophers, the three most outstanding in the world, are in the same room together. The minute note that the meeting was "charged to an unusual level with the spirit of controversy."
John Maynard Keynes also invited him to join Cambridge Apostles, an elite secret society established in 1820, in which Russell and G. E. Moore had joined as students, but Wittgenstein did not enjoy it and was rarely present. Russell has been concerned that Wittgenstein will not appreciate the seriousness of the group, the style of humor, or the fact that members love each other. He was accepted in 1912 but soon resigned because he could not tolerate the level of discussion at Hearth Rug; they brought him back in 1920 when he returned to Cambridge. (He also had trouble tolerating discussions at the Moral Sciences Club.)
Frustration in Cambridge/Pre-war
Wittgenstein was quite vocal about his years of depression at Cambridge, and before he went to war; on many occasions, he told Russell about his misery. His mental anguish seems to come from two sources: his work, and his personal life. Wittgenstein made many comments to Russell about the logic of driving him crazy. Wittgenstein also told Russell that he "felt the curse of those with half the talent". He then expressed this same concern, and told me about being in the spirit of mediocrity because of the lack of progress in his logical work. The monk wrote that Wittgenstein lives and breathes logic, and lacks inspiration while plunging him into despair. Unless he lies, Wittgenstein tells his work in logic that affects his mental status in a very extreme way. However, he also told Russell another story. Around Christmas, in 1913, he wrote: "How can I become a logician before I become a human being? Because the most important thing is to make a deal with myself!" He also told Russell on one occasion in Russell's room that he was worried about his logic and his sins; too, upon arriving in Russell's room one night, Wittgenstein announced to Russell that he was going to kill himself as soon as he left. Of the few things that Wittgenstein personally tell Russell, Ludwig's temperament is also recorded in David Pinsent's diary. Pinsent writes, "I have to be very careful and tolerant when he gets upset," and "I'm afraid he's in a more sensitive neurotic state now than usual," when talking about Wittgenstein's emotional fluctuations.
Orientation and sexual relationship with David Pinsent
Wittgenstein has a romantic relationship with men and women. He is generally believed to have fallen in love with at least three men, and has relationships with the latter two: David Hume Pinsent in 1912, Francis Skinner in 1930, and Ben Richards in the late 1940s. He later revealed that, as a teenager in Vienna, he had an affair with a woman. In addition, in the 1920s Wittgenstein fell in love with a young Swiss woman, Marguerite Respinger, modeling a statue of himself and proposing a marriage, though on condition that they would not have children.
Wittgenstein's relationship with David Pinsent (1891-1918) occurred during the period of intellectual formation, and was well documented. Bertrand Russell introduced Wittgenstein to Pinsent in the summer of 1912. The mathematician and descendant of David Hume, Pinsent soon became Wittgenstein's closest friend. Men worked together in experiments in psychology labs about the role of rhythm in musical appreciation, and Wittgenstein presented a paper on the matter to the British Psychological Association at Cambridge in 1912. They also traveled together, including to Iceland in September 1912. - paid by Wittgenstein, including a first class trip, rent a private train, and new clothes and spend money on Pinsent. In addition to Iceland, Wittgenstein and Pinsent traveled to Norway in 1913. After determining their destination, Wittgenstein and Pinsent visited the tourism office to locate a location that would meet the following criteria - a small village located in the Fjord, a location away from tourists, and a peaceful destination to enable them to learn logic and law. Suggesting ÃÆ'ËÅ"ystese, Wittgenstein and Pinsent arrived in a small village on September 4, 1913. With their three-week vacation, Wittgenstein was able to work hard in his studies. Major advances in logic during their stay caused Wittgenstein to declare Pinsent his idea to leave Cambridge and return to Norway to continue his work on logic. The Pinsent diary provides valuable insight into Wittgenstein's personality - sensitive, nervous and in tune with little or mood swings from Pinsent. Pinsent also writes about Wittgenstein being "really sulky and snappish" at times, too. In his diary, Pinsent wrote about shopping for furniture with Wittgenstein in Cambridge when the last one was given a room at Trinity; most of what they find in stores is not minimalist enough for Wittgenstein's aesthetics: "I went and helped him interview a lot of furniture in various stores... It was kind of funny: he was very meticulous and we led a scary shopkeeper, Vittgenstein [ sic] ejaculate "No - Beastly!" Up to 90 percent of what he said [ancient spelling] to us! "
He wrote in May 1912 that Wittgenstein had just begun to study the history of philosophy: "He revealed the most naive surprise that all the philosophers he once worshiped in ignorance were after all foolish and dishonest and made a disgusting mistake!" The last time they met each other was on October 8, 1913 at the Lordswood House in Birmingham, then the Pinsent family's residence: "I woke up at 6.15 to see Ludwig leave - he had to leave very early - back to Cambridge - because he had a lot of should be done there.I saw him go from home by taxi at 7.0 - to take the train at 7:30 from New St. Station It was sad parted from him. "Wittgenstein lives in Norway.
1913-1920: World War I and Tractatus
Working at Logic
Karl Wittgenstein died on January 20, 1913, and after receiving his legacy Wittgenstein became one of the richest men in Europe. He donated some of his money, initially anonymously, to Austrian artists and writers, including Rainer Maria Rilke and Georg Trakl. Trakl was asked to meet his benefactor but in 1914 when Wittgenstein went to visit, Trakl had committed suicide. Wittgenstein began to feel that he could not get to the heart of his most basic questions when surrounded by other scholars, so in 1913 he retreated to the village of Skjolden in Norway, where he rented a second floor of a house for the winter. He then saw this as one of the most productive periods of his life, writing Logic ( Notes on Logic ), the predecessor of many Tractatus . While in Norway, Wittgenstein studied Norwegian to speak with local villagers, and Denmark to read the works of Danish philosopher SÃÆ'¸ren Kierkegaard.
It was during this time that Wittgenstein began dealing with what he regarded as a central issue in the Logic Notes, a general decision procedure for determining the truth value of a logical proposition that would derive from a single primitive proposition. He became convinced during this time that "[a] ll the proposition of logic is the generalization of tautology and all generalization of tautology is generalization of logic." There is no other logical proposition. " Based on this, Wittgenstein argues that the proposition of logic reveals their truth or error in the sign itself, and one does not need to know anything about the constituent parts of the proposition to determine whether it is right or wrong. On the contrary, one only needs to identify the statement as tautology (true), contradictory (false), or not.
The problem lies in forming a primitive proposition that includes this and will act as the basis for all logic. As he declared in correspondence with Russell at the end of 1913, "The big question now is, how the system of signs should be set up to make every tautology known as ONE AND THE SAME WAY This is a fundamental problem of logic!" The importance of Wittgenstein is placed on the issue This fundamental is so great that he believes if he does not finish it, he has no reason or right to live. Regardless of this real meaning of life or death, Wittgenstein succumbed to this primitive proposition at the time of writing the Tractatus . The Tractatus does not offer a general process for identifying propositions as tautologies; in a simpler way, "Each tautology itself shows that it is a tautology." The shift to tautology understanding through identification or recognition occurred in 1914 when Moore was summoned by Wittgenstein to help him dictate his records.
At Wittgenstein's insistence, Moore, now a Cambridge donor, visited him in Norway in 1914, reluctantly because Wittgenstein drained him. David Edmonds and John Eidinow wrote that Wittgenstein considers Moore, an internationally known philosopher, for example how far a person can gain a life with "absolutely no intelligence whatsoever." In Norway it is clear that Moore is expected to act as Wittgenstein's secretary, taking notes, with Wittgenstein falling into anger when Moore gets something wrong. When he returned to Cambridge, Moore asked the university to consider receiving Logic as enough for a bachelor's degree, but they refused, saying that it was not formatted correctly: no footnotes, no preface. Wittgenstein was furious, writing to Moore in May 1914: "If I am not worthy of making exceptions for me even in some foolish details then I might as well go to Hell directly, and if I is worthy and you did not do it then - by God - you may go there. "Moore is apparently desperate; he wrote in his diary that he felt sick and could not get the letter out of his head. The two did not speak again until 1929.
Military services
At the outbreak of World War I, Wittgenstein immediately volunteered for the Austrian-Hungarian Army, although it qualified for a medical exemption. He served first on the ship and then at the artillery workshop 'a few miles from the action'. He was injured in an unintentional explosion, and was hospitalized to KrakÃÆ'³w. In March 1916, he was placed in a combat unit on the front line of the Russian front, as part of the Austrian 7th Army, where his unit was involved in some of the toughest battles, defending against the Brusilov offensive. Wittgenstein directed his own artillery fire from an observation post on a no-man's land against the Allied forces - one of the most dangerous jobs there, as he was the target of enemy fire. In action against British troops, he was decorated with Military Ranks with a Sword on the Ribbon, and was praised by the army for his "very courageous, calm, sang-froid, and heroic stance," which "won the total admiration of troops." In January 1917, he was sent as a member of the howitzer regiment to the Russian front, where he won several medals again for courage including the Silver Medal for Valor, First Class. In 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant and sent to the Italian front as part of the artillery forces. For his part in the Austrian offensive at the end of June 1918, he was recommended for the Golden Medal for Valor, one of the highest honors in the Austrian army, but instead was awarded the Military Service Medal Band with the Sword - it was decided that this particular act, though unbelievably valiant, consequences for the highest honor.
Throughout the war, he kept a notebook where he often wrote philosophical reflections in addition to personal comments, including insults against other soldier characters. He found Leo Tolstoy in 1896 Short Gospel at a bookstore in TarnÃÆ'³w, and took it everywhere, recommending it to anyone in distress, to the point where he was known by his fellow warriors as " men with the gospel. "
The extent to which the Gospel in Brief was influenced by Wittgenstein can be seen in Tractatus , in a unique way both books write their sentences. 1916 Wittgenstein reads the work of Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov so often that he knows the whole part with his heart, especially the speeches of the older Zosima, representing him a strong, ideal Christian, a saint "who can see directly into the souls of others. "Iain King suggested that his writing change substantially in 1916, when he began to face a much greater danger during front-line battles. Russell says he came back from war as a changed man, someone with a very mystical and ascetic attitude.
Settlement Tractatus
In the summer of 1918 Wittgenstein took military leave and went to live in one of his family's summer homes, Neuwaldegg. It was there in August 1918 that he completed the Tractatus , which he proposed under the title Der Satz (German: proposition, sentence, phrase, set, but also "leap ") to Jahoda and Siegel publishers.
A series of events around this time made him very annoyed. On August 13, his uncle, Paul, died. On October 25, he learned that Jahoda and Siegel had decided not to publish the Tractatus, and on October 27, his brother Kurt committed suicide, his three brothers committed suicide. It was around the time he received a letter from David Pinsent's mother to say that Pinsent had been killed in a plane crash on 8 May. Wittgenstein was desperate to become a suicide. He was sent back to the Italian front after he left and, as a result of the defeat of the Austrian army, he was captured by the Allied forces on 3 November in Trentino. He then spent nine months at an Italian prisoner war camp.
He returned to his family in Vienna on August 25, 1919, with all accounts physically and mentally spent. He apparently speaks incessantly about suicide, frightening his sister and brother, Paul. He decided to do two things: to enroll in a teacher training school as an elementary school teacher, and to get rid of his wealth. In 1914, he had given him an income of 300,000 Kronen per year, but in 1919 it was worth far more, with a considerable portfolio of investments in the United States and the Netherlands. He split it among his brothers, except Margarete, insisting that it was not held in trust for him. Her family saw her as sick, and agreed.
1920-1928: Teaching, > Tractatus , Haus Wittgenstein
Teacher training in Vienna
In September 1919 he enrolled at Lehrerbildungsanstalt (teacher training school) at Kundmanngasse in Vienna. Her sister, Hermine, said that Wittgenstein, who works as an elementary school teacher, uses precision instruments to open the trunk, but the family decides not to interfere. Thomas Bernhard, more critically, writes about this period in Wittgenstein's life: "multi-billionaires as village headmasters are certainly part of the heresy."
Teaching in Austria
In the summer of 1920, Wittgenstein worked as a gardener for a monastery. At first he signed up, under a false name, for a teaching post in Reichenau, was awarded the job, but he refused it when his identity was found. As a teacher, he hopes to be no longer recognized as a member of the famous Wittgenstein family. In response, his brother Paul wrote:
"It does not matter, absolutely impossible, that anyone who carries our name and who is accompanied by an elegant and gentle one can see a thousand steps, will not be identified as a member of our family... That one can not mimic or contaminate anything including a good education that I hardly need to tell you. "
In 1920, Wittgenstein was given his first job as an elementary school teacher in Trattenbach, under his real name, in a remote village of several hundred people. His first letters describe him as beautiful, but in October 1921 he wrote to Russell: "I am still in Trattenbach, surrounded, as before, by ignorance and modesty.I know that the average man does not mean much anywhere, here they are much better and irresponsible than elsewhere. "He soon became the object of gossip among the villagers, who found him very eccentric. He does not fit in with other teachers; when he found his place too noisy, he made a bed for himself in the school kitchen. He is an enthusiastic teacher, offering extra lessons at night to some students, something that does not make him cherished by parents, although some of them come to admire him; his sister, Hermine, occasionally saw him teaching and said that the students "literally crawl over each other in their desires to be chosen for answers or demonstrations."
For the underprivileged, it seems he is becoming a tyrant. The first two hours of each day were devoted to mathematics, the hours written by the monks of several disciples recalled years later with horror. They reported that he whipped the boy and tinkered with their ears, and also that he pulled the girls' hair; This was not unusual at that time for boys, but for the villagers he went too far on girls too; girls are not expected to understand algebra, let alone have their ears on it. Violent detachment, the monk wrote that he quickly became a village legend, shouting " Krautsalat!" ("Coleslaw" - the grated scar) when the principal played the piano, and "Nonsense!" when a priest answers the children's questions. Publication Tractatus
While Wittgenstein lived in isolation in rural Austria, Tractatus was published for great importance, first in Germany in 1921 as Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung , part of the journal Wilhelm Ostwald Annalen der Naturphilosophie , though Wittgenstein is unhappy with the results and calls it a pirate edition. Russell has agreed to write an introduction to explain why it is important, because it is impossible to publish: it is difficult if not impossible to grasp, and Wittgenstein is unknown in philosophy. In a letter to Russell, Wittgenstein writes "The main point is the theory of what can be expressed (gesagt) by prop [osition] s - ie by language - (and, coming to the same thing, what can be thought ) and what can not be expressed by pro [position], but only shown (gezeigt), which, I believe, is the main problem of philosophy. "But Wittgenstein was unhappy with Russell's help. He had lost faith in Russell, found him eloquent and his philosophical mechanics, and felt he had fundamentally misunderstood the Tractatus.
An English translation was prepared in Cambridge by Frank Ramsey, a mathematician at King's who was commissioned by C. K. Ogden. It was Moore who suggested Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus for the title, a reference to Baruch Spinoza Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Initially there was a difficulty in finding publishers for the English edition as well, because Wittgenstein insisted it appeared without Russell's introduction; Cambridge University Press rejected it for that reason. Finally in 1922 an agreement was reached with Wittgenstein that Kegan Paul would print a bilingual edition with the introduction of Russell and the Ramsey-Ogden translation. This is a translation approved by Wittgenstein, but it is problematic in several ways. Wittgenstein's English was bad at the time, and Ramsey was a teenager who had just learned German, so philosophers often preferred to use the 1961 translation by David Pears and Brian McGuinness.
The purpose of Tractatus is to reveal the relationship between language and the world: what can be said about it, and what can only be shown. Wittgenstein argues that the logical structure of languages ​​provides the boundaries of meaning. The boundaries of language, for Wittgenstein, are the boundaries of philosophy. Many philosophies involve attempts to say unacceptable: "What we can say at all can be said clearly," he argues. Anything beyond that - religion, ethics, aesthetics, mystics - can not be discussed. They are not themselves unreasonable, but every statement about them should be. He writes in the foreword: "Therefore, this book will draw the boundary to think, or rather - not think, but to the expression of the mind; for, to draw the limit for thinking we must be able to think both sides of this boundary (hence we must be able to think what can not be thought of). "
The book is 75 pages long - "As to the brevity of this book, I am very sorry for that... If you squeeze me like a lemon, you will not get anything else from me," he told Ogden - and presented seven numbered propositions ( 1-7), with various sub-levels (1, 1.1, 1.11):
- Die Welt ist alles, is der Fall ist .
- The world is everything that happens.
- is der Fall ist, die Tatsache, ist das Bestehen von Sachverhalten .
- What happens, in fact, is the existence of an atomic fact.
- Das logische Bild der Tatsachen ist der Gedanke .
- The logical representation of facts is thought.
- Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz .
- The thought is a significant proposition.
- Der Satz ist eine Wahrheitsfunktion der ElementarsÃÆ'¤tze .
- Proposition is a function of truth of the basic proposition.
- Die allgemeine Form der Wahrheitsfunktion ist: . Dies ist die allgemeine Form des Satzes .
- The general form of the truth-function is: . This is a common form of proposition.
- Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darÃÆ'¼ber muÃÆ'Ÿ man schweigen .
- From which one can not speak, one must be silent.
Visit from Frank Ramsey, Puchberg
In September 1922 he moved to high school in the nearby village, Hassbach, but considered the people there as bad - "These people are not human at all but the worms are disgusting," he wrote to a friend - and he goes after a month. In November he started working in another elementary school, this time in Puchberg in the mountains of Schneeberg. There, he told Russell, the villagers were "a quarter of an animal and three-quarters of people."
Frank P. Ramsey visited him on September 17, 1923 to discuss Tractatus ; he agreed to write a review for Mind . He reported in his home letter that Wittgenstein lived frugally in a small white room with only room for a bed, a wash desk, a small table, and a small hard chair. Ramsey shared a dinner with her rough bread, butter, and chocolate. Wittgenstein's school hours are eight to twelve or one, and he has a free afternoon. After Ramsey returned to Cambridge, a long campaign began among Wittgenstein's friends to persuade him to return to Cambridge and away from what they saw as an unfriendly environment for him. He received no help even from his family. Ramsey wrote to John Maynard Keynes:
Haidbauer Incident, Otterthal"[The Wittgenstein family] is very rich and desperate to give him money or do anything for him in any way, and he rejects all their progress, even a Christmas gift or an unlawful gift, when he is sick, he sends back. they are not in good shape but because he will not have the money he has not got... This is very unfortunate. "
He moved school again in September 1924, this time to Otterthal, near Trattenbach; the head of the socialist school, Josef Putre, was someone who was friends with Wittgenstein while in Trattenbach. While he was there, he wrote a 42-page dictionary and a spelling dictionary for children, WÃÆ'¶rterbuch fÃÆ'¼r Volksschulen , published in Vienna in 1926 by HÃÆ'¶lder-Pichler-Tempsky, one his only book apart from Tractatus published in his lifetime. The first edition was sold in 2005 for £ 75,000.
An incident occurred in April 1926 and was known as Der Vorfall Haidbauer (Haidbauer incident). Josef Haidbauer is an 11-year-old student whose father has died and his mother works as a local maid. He was a slow learner, and one day Wittgenstein hit him two or three times in the head, causing him to collapse. Wittgenstein took him to the principal's office, then quickly left school, bumping into his parents, Herr Piribauer, on the way out. Piribauer had been sent by the children when they saw Haidbauer collapse; Wittgenstein had previously pulled Piribau's daughter, Hermine, so hard by the ear whose ear was bleeding. Piribauer said that when he met Wittgenstein in the hall that day: "I called him all names under the sun, I told him that he was not a teacher, he was an animal trainer and that I would pick up the police immediately!"
Piribauer tried to capture Wittgenstein, but the village police station was empty, and when he tried again the next day, he was told that Wittgenstein had disappeared. On April 28, 1926, Wittgenstein submitted his resignation to Wilhelm Kundt, a local school inspector, who tried to persuade him to stay; However, Wittgenstein insisted that his days as a schoolteacher had ended. The event started in May, and the judge ordered a psychiatric report; In August 1926 a letter to Wittgenstein from a friend, Ludwig HÃÆ'¤nsel, indicated that the trial was in progress, but nothing was known about the case after that. Alexander Waugh writes that the Wittgenstein family and their money may have a hand to cover everything. Waugh writes that Haidbauer died shortly after hemophilia; The monk says he died when he was 14 years old from leukemia.
Ten years later, in 1936, as part of a series of "confessions" he did that year, Wittgenstein appeared without warning in the village and said that he wanted to confess personally and apologize to the children he had beaten. She visited at least four of the children, including Hermine Piribauer, who seemed to only respond with "Ja, ja," although the other former students were more hospitable. The monk wrote that the purpose of this confession is not "to hurt his pride, as a form of punishment, he must dismantle it - to remove obstacles, as it were, that hinders honest thinking and deserves." Upon apology, Wittgenstein wrote, "This leads me to the calmer waters... and for greater seriousness."
Vienna Circle
The Tractatus is now the subject of much debate among philosophers, and Wittgenstein is an increasingly famous figure internationally. In particular, the discussion groups of philosophers, scientists and mathematicians, known as the Viennese Circle, have been built largely as a result of the inspiration they have given by reading the
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