Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

Philosophy Now:

When Ludwig Wittgenstein was persuaded to return to Cambridge in 1929, he was virtually penniless and had no degree. Bertrand Russell realised that Wittgenstein’s previous status as an undergraduate in Trinity College would allow him to apply for a doctorate; and G.E. Moore suggested that he submit his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) as a doctoral thesis. The examination has passed into legend. After the oral, Wittgenstein clapped his two examiners – the eminent philosophers Russell and Moore – on the shoulder, and said, “Don’t worry. I know you’ll never understand it.” Moore’s report was masterfully succinct: “I consider that this is a work of genius but, even if it is not, it is well above the standard required for a PhD degree.” Posterity has been less ambivalent. The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is now recognised as a masterpiece. Indeed, as his former student continued to develop, Russell became concerned that his own reputation might be overshadowed.Wittgenstein is unique in that he produced two different and highly influential philosophies. Each had a decisive effect on two successive generations of philosophers. The Tractatus was the only book published by Wittgenstein in his lifetime. A later, and quite different, work was published after his death, under the title Philosophical Investigations (1953). These two books, published over thirty years apart, had a major influence on the development of modern philosophy. Only 25,000 of Wittgenstein’s words were published while he was alive; but the 3,000,000 left behind unpublished have sustained a small philosophical industry ever since.

Ludwig Joseph Johann Wittgenstein was born in Vienna on 26 April 1889, son of the richest and most powerful steel magnate in Austria. Impelled by his family background, he developed an interest in machinery. After attending a school specialising in mathematics and the physical sciences he enrolled in the Technische Hochscule in Charlottenburg, Berlin in 1906, to study mechanical engineering, leaving with a diploma after only three semesters. He moved to the University of Manchester in 1908, planning to take a doctorate in aeronautical engineering. In order to gain a more secure understanding of the mathematics underlying these studies, he studied Bertrand Russell’s The Principles of Mathematics and Gottlob Frege’s Grundegesetze der Arithmetik [The Foundations of Arithmetic], and his whole life changed. Wittgenstein felt an urgent need to study philosophy which put him “in an almost pathological state of agitation.” On impulse, he visited Frege in Jena, wishing to become one of his students. Frege suggested instead that he go to Cambridge and study under Russell. On 18 October 1911, Russell was having tea in his rooms in Trinity College when “an unknown German appeared, speaking very little English, but refusing to speak German. He turned out to be a man who had learned engineering at Charlottenburg but had acquired, by himself, a passion for the philosophy of mathematics, and has now come to Cambridge to hear me.” (continues)