Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) is one of the most important and original philosophers of the 20th century. Uniquely among major philosophers, he produced two philosophies: an early and a late, which are in fundamental tension with each other. Both center on language and its relationship to thought and world.

Life

Born in Vienna into one of the richest families in Austria, Wittgenstein was the youngest of eight children; several of his brothers died by suicide. He studied engineering in Berlin and Manchester before encountering Frege's logic and going to Cambridge to study under Bertrand Russell. He served in the Austrian army in World War I, during which he completed the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in a notebook. After the war, believing he had solved all philosophical problems, he gave away his inheritance and became a village schoolteacher and then a monastery gardener. He returned to philosophy in the late 1920s and spent the rest of his career at Cambridge. He died of cancer in 1951. His last words were reportedly: "Tell them I've had a wonderful life."

Early Philosophy: The Tractatus

The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) is a terse, numbered set of propositions developing a picture theory of language:

Facts — the world is the totality of facts, not things
Picture theory — a proposition is a logical picture of a fact; language and world share logical form
The limits of language — "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." What can be clearly said can be said; the rest must be passed over in silence (Wwhereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent)
Ethics and the mystical — ethics, aesthetics, God, and the meaning of life cannot be said — they show themselves. The Tractatus cannot consistently say its own doctrine, so its propositions are "nonsensical" — ladders to be climbed and thrown away

This position influenced the Vienna Circle's logical positivism. But Wittgenstein soon became dissatisfied with it.

Later Philosophy: Philosophical Investigations

The Philosophical Investigations (published 1953, posthumously) dismantles much of the Tractatus:

Meaning as Use

Meaning is not a picture of reality but use in a form of life (Lebensform). Words get their meaning from the way they are used in social practices.

Language Games (Sprachspiele)

Language is not one unified thing but a family of overlapping practices — like games. Different kinds of talk (science, ethics, prayer, poetry) follow different rules.

Private Language Argument

Can there be a genuinely private language — one only I can understand, referring to my inner experiences? Wittgenstein argues: no. Meaning requires criteria, and criteria require a public practice. This challenges Descartes' privileged access to inner mental states and the whole Cartesian tradition.

Rule-Following

How do I know I am following a rule correctly? Any action can be made compatible with any rule under some interpretation. Rules are grounded not in mental facts but in practice and training. This connects to Hume's problem of induction and to Epistemology generally.

Philosophy as Therapy

Philosophy's task is not to build theories but to dissolve puzzles that arise when language "goes on holiday" — when words are used outside their normal contexts. Philosophical problems are symptoms of linguistic confusion.

Influence

Wittgenstein transformed analytic philosophy and the philosophy of language
His private language argument was deeply contested and generated decades of debate
His later work influenced ordinary-language philosophy (Austin, Ryle)
On Certainty (posthumous) influenced contemporary Epistemology's approach to basic certainty and context
His picture theory influenced early logical positivism; his later work dismantled it

Logic — the early Wittgenstein's logical picture theory
Epistemology — meaning, justification, and the limits of knowledge
Metaphysics — what can and cannot be said about the nature of reality
Consciousness — private language argument and the mind
Hume — rule-following connects to Hume's skepticism about induction
Descartes — whose privileged inner access Wittgenstein challenges
Ethics — the unsayable moral domain of the Tractatus
Phenomenology — parallel investigations of the structure of experience