Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: biography, personal life, quotes

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most brilliant, paradoxical and charismatic philosophers of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that he was not recognized as his contemporaries and was detached from society, he had a great influence on the formation of modern principles and laws of thought. Wittgenstein became the predecessor of at least three intellectual philosophical currents - logical positivism, linguistic philosophy and linguistic analysis.

short biography

Austria and Great Britain had a great influence on the life and philosophy of such a thinker as Ludwig Wittgenstein. A brief biography clearly indicates this. The future philosopher was born in Vienna in one of the most famous and wealthy families of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a famous engineer and tycoon, and his mother was an ancient Jewish family.

Like his father, Ludwig Wittgenstein began to study engineering, in particular he was interested in the design of flying machines. Over time, this led him to the problem of the philosophical basis of mathematics. In addition, there were other things that interested Ludwig Wittgenstein. Biography indicates that he was fond of music, sculpture, architecture, literature and art. In the early twentieth century, Wittgenstein left for Cambridge, where he became a student, and later an assistant and friend, the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell.

During the First World War, Wittgenstein went volunteer to the front, where he was taken prisoner. During his stay in the prisoner of war camp, he practically completed one of his most famous works - "Logico-philosophical treatise" - which had a huge impact on the development of European and world philosophy. After that he worked as a teacher in an ordinary rural school. Over time, Wittgenstein understands that his philosophy is largely erroneous and requires further development, so he again returns to the UK, where he continues to work on his treatise, while being a professor at Cambridge University.

During the Second World War, he works as a medical attendant, and also is engaged in his new direction - the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein died in 1953 of prostate cancer. All his ideas concerning the philosophy of language were published posthumously.

Early philosophy of Wittgenstein

In his younger years, Ludwig Wittgenstein was actively involved in the activity of the literary and critical avant-garde in Vienna, and was also interested in the ideas of K. Kraus, editor of the magazine Fakel, who dealt with issues of the separation of value and fact in art. A strong influence on Wittgenstein was also provided by the ideas of G. Frege and B. Russell, under whose leadership he worked for a long time. From the first, he adopted the idea of a propositional function, the true meaning, as well as the semantic difference in meaning and the meaning of expressions in the language, from the second, the method of analyzing the language in a logical way, which includes the search for "atomic" facts, as well as individual elements of the logical description of mathematics.

The first logical ideas of Wittgenstein were formulated in his "Diaries", where he talks about the possibilities of new logic and logical syntax. These reflections became the basis for his key work of this period - the "Logico-philosophical treatise".

"Logico-philosophical treatise"

The work was published in 1921 first in German, and then in English. The book is written in the form of separate aphorisms, which Ludwig Wittgenstein used to interpret his ideas. Quotations are placed next to the corresponding figures indicating the level of importance of a particular aphorism.

Despite the similarity with the ideas of Russell and Frege, the book was in many ways unique. The treatise raises the question of the possibilities and boundaries of thinking, while the author combines the concepts of thinking and language, while philosophy thus appears as a kind of analytical critique of language. In Wittgenstein's concept, language performs the function of denoting facts, which is possible due to the internal logical structure of the language. This doctrine still plays an important role in modern Western intellectual directions.

The late philosophy of Wittgenstein

Over time, Ludwig Wittgenstein rethought his position and abandoned the a priori structure of the language. He points to the variety of words and expressions that are used in natural language. In accordance with this, the word does not represent the mental image of the object, only the use of words in context in accordance with linguistic rules gives the word a certain meaning.

Wittgenstein operates with such a concept as language games, where each word gets its meaning only if certain conditions of the game are met. Wittgenstein also points to the need for a correct statement of questions. Wittgenstein's late philosophical position is described in his work "Philosophical Studies."

"Philosophical Studies"

The last significant book on which Ludwig Wittgenstein worked. Philosophy is briefly described from the introductory part of the book, where the author points out that it is necessary to consider this work in comparison with the "Logico-philosophical treatise".

In contrast to the early work, "Philosophical Studies" do not have a prophetic style and are divided into two parts. The first part has the following structure:

• The concept of language and its meaning.
• Analysis of epistemological and psychological concepts.
• Analysis of the international aspects of the previously mentioned concepts.

The second part of the book is less structured and has an unfinished look. Here the author speaks about words, their meaning and about the functions of philosophy in these matters.

Ludwig Wittgenstein - one of the most mysterious philosophers of the twentieth century. Unlike his contemporaries, he not only pondered, but also lived in accordance with his views. It is thanks to him that philosophy has become the philosophy of language - a science that examines how people see and describe the world.