Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

Geometry is also in this sense a part of grammar. A causal relation is external. To Wittgenstein, this talk of cause and effect misses the point. In his notes he ridiculed Russell's account by the following analogy: We are in the habit, whenever we perceive similarities, of seeking some common origin for them. The urge to follow such phenomena back to their origin in the past expresses itself in a certain style of thinking. This recognizes, so to speak, only a single scheme for such similarities, namely the arrangement as a series in time.

And that is presumably bound up with the uniqueness of the causal schema. But Goethe's view shows that this is not the only possible form of conception. His conception of the original plant implies no hypothesis about the temporal development of the vegetable kingdom such as that of Darwin. Whatn then is the problem solved by this idea? It is the problem of synoptic presentation.

Goethe's aphorism 'All the organs of plants are leaves transformed' offers us a plan in which we may group the organs of plants ccording to their similarities as if around some natural centre. We see the original form of the leaf changing into similar and cognate forms, into the leaves of the calyx, the leaves of the petal, into organs that are half petals, half stamens, and so on. We follow this sensuous transformation of the type by linking up the leaf through intermediate forms with the other organs of the plant.

We are collating one form of languge with its environment, or transforming it in imagination so as to gain a view of the whole of space in which the structure of our language has its being. There need, in fact, be no words at all.

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Obviously the essence of religion cannot have anything to do with the fact that there is talking, or rather: Thus it also does not matter at all if the words used are true or false or nonsense. Thus, for example, in the Platonic dialogues, Socrates seeks to answer philosophical questions such as: In connection with this, Wittgenstein once said that his method could be summed up by saying that it was the exact opposite of that of Socrates.

In the Blue Book Wittgenstein seeks to replace this notion of essence with the more flexible idea of family resemblances.

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But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear. The real discovery is the one that makes me capable of stopping doing philosophy when I want to. And then the style cannot be my own. If you are unwilling to know what you are, your writing is a form of deceit. Appreciation will be shown , by actions as often as by words, by certain gestures of disgust or satisfaction, by the way we read a work of poetry or play a piece of music, by how often we read or listen to the same piece, and how we do so.

These different forms of appreciation do not have any one thing in common that one can isolate in answer to the question: To describe what it consists in we would have to describe the whole environment. Perhaps I don't understand his tone; to me it does not ring like the tone of a man possessed by the truth. Like for instance Ibsen's tone. It is possible, however, that here the translation leaves a chasm which I cannot bridge. I read with interest throughout, but without being gripped.

That does not seem to be a good sign. Because both have encouraged the idea that a philosophical justification for religious beliefs is necessary for those beliefs to be given any credence. Both the atheist, who scorns religion because he has found no evidence for its tenets, and the believer, who attempts to prove the existence of God, have fallen victim to the 'other' -- to the idol-worship of the scientific style of thinking.

Religious beliefs are not analogous to scientific theories, and should not be accepted or rejected using the same evidential criteria. A proof in mathematics does not establish the truth of a conclusion; it fixes, rather, the meaning of certain signs. The 'inexorability' of mathematics, therefore, does not consist in certain knowledge of mathematical truths, but in the fact that mathematical propositions are grammatical.

What puzzles us about a dream is not its causality but its significance. We wnt the kind of explanation which 'changes the aspect' under which we see the images of a dream, so that they now make sense. I know that I've not any right to say this. I'm not much good at carrying burdens myself. What was required was a change of spirit: Faith on the other hand is a passion. As he put it: Life on the other hand and religion are full of colour.

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That you h ave to change your life. Or the direction of your life. What is required for understanding here is not the discovery of facts, nor the drawing of logically valid inferences from accepted premises -- nor, still less, the construction of theories -- but, rather, the right point of view from which to 'see' the joke, to hear the expression in the music or to see your way out of the philosophical fog. What is further required for people to be alive to 'aspects' and, therefore, for humour, music, poetry and painting to mean something is a culture.

And the same goes for belief in the Trinity. A theology which insists on the use of certain particular words and phrases, and outlaws others, does not make anything clearer Karl Barth. It gesticulates with words, as one might say, because it wants to say something and does not know how to express it.

Practice gives the words their sense. There is a first only if there is a second. Mar 21, Isabel rated it it was amazing Shelves: A thoughtful and thorough portrait. May 03, Robert rated it it was amazing. Ray Monk's excellent biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein portrays the intense, ascetic, conscience-ridden philosopher in all the phases of his difficult life, childhood to death.

Wittgenstein was born into one of the wealthiest families in Europe, began his higher level studies as an engineer and became perhaps the most highly regarded philosopher of the first half of the 20th century. His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus gained him early fame with which he was never comfortable and ultimately became a Ray Monk's excellent biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein portrays the intense, ascetic, conscience-ridden philosopher in all the phases of his difficult life, childhood to death.

His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus gained him early fame with which he was never comfortable and ultimately became a work he disavowed. Bertrand Russell was his best-known supporter, helping him establish himself at Cambridge, but Russell, like many others who were close to Wittgenstein, ultimately gave up on him. As Monk makes clear, Wittgenstein was uncompromising, harsh, and exhausting. He fled from and to Cambridge on numerous occasions, lectured by shouting sometimes and maintaining silence at other times, and ultimately adopted a philosophical style that was a quarrel with convention.

If Socrates was a self-described gadfly, then Wittgenstein was an inveterate nuisance to himself and others. He could outargue anyone but apparently did not so much enjoy doing so as felt obliged to do so. He mistrusted theories and generalizations. He bullied himself and others into finding ways to think logically and live ethically. He would have everyone live more slowly,not more rapidly, and disbelieve in Progress. The pity of this biography and Wittgenstein's life, it seems to me, is that despite the enormous amount of documentation Monk is able to weave into its telling, we still don't really have a good picture of the man in action.

Like Coleridge, he was a voluble and brilliant talker, much more prolific in person than in print. After the Tractatus, he spent years and years fiddling with new work that he could not bring himself to finish. He did leave a substantial cache of manuscripts and typescripts that have found their way into print post-mortem, but like the Tractatus--and unlike Wittgenstein the man-these texts are gnomic provocations that insist on the importance of context in interpreting words and events while eschewing their own context.

They are brief, brilliant, anti-systematic outbursts that lack the impact of Wittgenstein's facial expressions, his tones of voice, his abruptness, dismissiveness, philosophical personhood, if you will. People did not know what to do with him. He was acknowledged as a great philosopher, but he was not much interested in the work of the philosophers who preceded him.

He would philosophize about psychology or mathematics without spending much time discussing psychology or mathematics. He was interested in how we should think about psychology and mathematics Famous as he was, he famously did things like becoming a factotum at a London hospital during WWII when he could quite easily have stayed at Cambridge as professor of philosophy. And he also famously gave away the fortune he inherited from his father, transforming himself from one of the richest men in Europe to one of the poorest.

Monk spends a lot of time on Wittgenstein's romantic relationships, with one woman in particular and many men.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk

Some of these relationships, but far from all, were unconsummated. Wittgenstein was so self-punishing and self-critical that one wonders if he was deeply at odds with his predominantly homosexual preferences, but in an interesting appendix, Monk essentially knocks this notion down, addressing sexual identity questions more directly than he does in the main text. Withholding some of these comments so long may not be the best way to present them. Ironically, most of us who might find Wittgenstein fascinating would have the opposite effect on him.

This biography is a good way of getting around the perils of his immediate personality, but I still would love to have seen him in action. Aangezien ik dit boek in het Nederlands las, ga ik er ook in het Nederlands over schrijven. Dankzij de prachtige bibliotheeksticker stond er op de rug van mijn versie uiteindelijk: Portret van een Wittgenstein. Wat naar mijn bescheiden mening een stuk beter klinkt 'gekwelde geest'.

Om maar direct even heel eerlijk te zijn, dit was de eerste biografe die ik ooit heb gelezen en het komt ook direct het dichtst in de buurt van een filosofisch boek. Ik heb geen idee waarom ik he Aangezien ik dit boek in het Nederlands las, ga ik er ook in het Nederlands over schrijven. Ik heb geen idee waarom ik het geleend heb maar ik weet wel dat ik absoluut niet verwacht had het zo leuk te vinden. Ik deed er ongeveer een maand over om dit boek uit te lezen: De schrijfstijl is niet eens heel boeiend, vrij droog, weinig gevoel, ik had het idee dat dit deels ook door de vertaling kwam.

Gelukkig bestaat het boek voor een groot deel uit primair materiaal: Opnieuw had ik wel het idee dat deze aangetast waren door de vertaling, ze schenen in schrijfstijl veel overeen te komen.

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Maar het was fantastisch, alsof je in een archief gegooid werd en snipper voor snipper iemands leven in elkaar zette. Het was fascinerend om te lezen hoe personen verschenen en verdwenen, wie er overbleef en wie je dacht dat zou blijven maar nooit meer terugkeerde. Het is vreemd om je te beseffen dat het leven afgelopen was: Wanneer je fictie leest kan alles nog gebeuren, lijkt elke bladzijde op dat moment plaats te vinden maar hier ken je het einde al, hier is alles al voor je gedaan.

Daarnaast zat er in het boek genoeg filosofie om te voorkomen dat het simpelweg een soap werd. Toevallig zijn we op dit moment op school met kennisleer bezig en de dingen waar Wittgenstein zich mee bezig hield, sluiten hier best op aan. Ik merkte dat bepaalde dingen me opvielen in de les door wat ik in het boek gelezen had, maar dat daarentegen ook het boek duidelijker werd door achtergrondinformatie uit de les: Ook nu nog waren er genoeg dingen die ik niet begreep. Maar het is geruststellend om te weten dat een groot filosoof er niet voor terugdeinsde zijn gedachten en meningen radicaal te veranderen.

Dat ik over veertig jaar nog kan zeggen: Sep 17, Rishabh Shukla rated it it was amazing. This is by far the best biography I have read so far though I confess I haven't read that many biographies. Before I started reading this book, I was not even aware of the name Ludwig Wittgenstein, but after reading this, it's difficult to not admire and fall in love with his raw intelligence, childish innocence and unblemished heart that remained true to himself and everyone whose life he touched.

At many places in the book, it breaks ones heart to think of the loneliness Prof. Wittgenstein s This is by far the best biography I have read so far though I confess I haven't read that many biographies. Wittgenstein suffered throughout his life for in his own words, "his too little faith and too little courage in love.

But more than that, I feel, throughout his life, Prof Wittgenstein suffered from an acute self-deprecation about his feelings and the work he did as a Professor and professional philosopher. This self-deprecation was so acute that from time to time, he left philosophy to take on jobs that involved, in what he termed as "real work". Things like, working in an army or as an apprentice in a lab or even a small town mathematics teacher. What is though completely unintuitive is that most of his best work came from this period where he was not doing active philosophy.

The book connects the dots of explaining his work as a philosopher through his life and his life through his philosophy. All in all, it's a reminder, if not a life lesson, for anyone who wants to do some work but often falls in the trap of illusion of grandeur. While the entire world that knew Ludwig Wittgenstein during and after his lifetime remained convinced of his raw genius and importance of the work he was doing even if they were not necessarily convinced of its correctness , the one person that was never pleased with his work and was always critical of it was Ludwig Wittgenstein himself.

Mar 31, Nick Nillo rated it really liked it. Great biography about Wittgenstein's life and the only criticism I have is the reluctance of the author to explore his philosophy more deeply. But I guess considering it's a biography, it shouldn't be expected. However, when you take into account that it was almost pages, I was a little disappointed.

It was still a great read though and gave details about a truly incredible thinker of the 20th century.



Bir oyunun teorisi oyunun kendisidir. View all 7 comments. O livro o fascinou. Em , eles receberam o manuscrito, mas pelas cartas em seguida enviadas, W. Em , ele abandona a ideia de que havia necessariamente uma estrutura comum entre o mundo e a linguagem. A biografia nos transmite uma imagem de W. Dec 25, Helmut Schneider rated it liked it. Russell about young Wittgenstein in a letter to a friend. Spoken as a true atheist.

PHILOSOPHY - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Is this a good biography? I wish I had reliable criteria. Does it help me understand the man in his life and historical context?

My Wicked Heart

To some extent yes. We see a raving lunatic who thinks the world of himself when he doesn't disrespect himself or talks about suicide. We do see him getting caught up in the whirlwinds of history. World War 1 costs him his English friendships for many years. It kicks him into other worlds, before he comes back to Cambridge 15 years later.

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He neither denies, nor ignores it, nor does he give too much emphasis to his homosexuality. The oddest aspect of this crazy life is this: I love this quote from one of his sisters: I would rather have a happy person for a brother than an unhappy saint. Actually, what work did he do, apart from writing some funny aphorisms and some splendid platitudes? And didn't he keep changing his mind anyway?

I guess the book failed to convince me. Most of the breakthroughs in logic, that the book tells us about, look oddly like platitudes. I seem to agree on that with LW himself, who is quoted thus: Does anybody know around here?

Ludwig Wittgenstein the Duty of Genius

Anyway, Monk does not really try to show us why LW was so great. He merely said it, and not even forcefully as his own opinion. He was decorated for conspicuous bravery, having chosen the most dangerous position available to him, the observation post; and he also worked fitfully on the Tractatus. He finished that searing book soon after the war ended, but he could not find a publisher; neither was it well understood by Russell and Frege, his two great mentors.

Wittgenstein then became an elementary schoolteacher in rural Austria, living in extreme poverty and declining the help of his aristocratic family. The Tractatus was by now celebrated by the logical positivists, who contrived to ignore its mystical thrust. His own attitude toward the book was one of growing retraction, and he began to work out a new philosophy. The full text of this book review is only available to subscribers of the London Review of Books.

The contemporary Continental ideal of enlightened selfhood embraced sublimation, instinctual restraint and celibacy, not as repression, but as exhilarating mastery; this contrasts with the alternative vision of man as the glorious animal Aldous Huxley et al. We find it less ideologically difficult to accommodate similar incompatibilities, as of the bibulous versus the sober, the mentality of the mountaineer versus that of the armchair philosopher, or the interpretation of discipline of a professional dancer versus that of a gourmand.

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