1889 - 1951
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (b. 1889) was an Austrian-British philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. He made revolutionary contributions to logic, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of language. His unique approach to philosophical problems reshaped the landscape of modern analytic philosophy.
Born into one of Vienna's wealthiest families, Wittgenstein initially studied engineering before moving to the University of Cambridge in 1911 to study mathematical logic under Bertrand Russell. During World War I, he served as a frontline soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, completing his first major philosophical manuscript while in military service and as a prisoner of war. After the war, he briefly left academia to work as a primary school teacher in rural Austria and as a gardener before returning to Cambridge in 1929.
Upon his return to Cambridge, Wittgenstein was awarded a PhD and was later appointed as a professor of philosophy in 1939. During World War II, he worked in a London hospital and as a laboratory technician in Newcastle to contribute to the war effort. His later research departed significantly from his early views, leading him to develop a new philosophy centered on how language functions in everyday life, which was published after his death in 1951.
Essential Reading:
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922): This landmark text argues that the structure of language mirrors the structure of reality, asserting that the limits of language define the limits of our world.
- Philosophical Investigations (1953): Published posthumously, this influential work rejects the author's earlier theories of language in favor of the concept of language-games, suggesting that the meaning of words is determined by their active use in social contexts.
