Talk:Ludwig Wittgenstein

"She was an aunt of the Nobel Prize laureate Friedrich Hayek on her maternal side"

Was the line about Wittgenstein's Catholic grandma supposed to read "She was an aunt of the Nobel Prize laureate Friedrich Hayek on his maternal side"? A nephew is a relative through one's sibling, which makes "maternal side" a senseless modifier. HermannusAlemannus (talk) 10:30, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

We should archive this topic, since that text is no longer in the article. Jtbwikiman (talk) 21:07, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

Hertz and Bildtheorie

I have two questions:

• How do you translate "picture theory" as in picture theory of language? what is the actual German word used here (Bildtheorie)? Was "Bildtheorie" ever used by Wittgenstein?
• Why is there no mention of Heinrich Hertz in this article or the picture theory one? Apparently Wittgenstein was inspired by him.

Philosophy is not my field but I can help find sources if that is what is missing. ReyHahn (talk) 19:36, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

I just noticed that question two is answered by the infobox under "influences". However the question now goes into why some of those names are not named in this article or in any of the articles related to his work.--ReyHahn (talk) 09:46, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

German Wikipedia uses the term "Abbildtheorie" (abbilden: depict, represent, display, project, etc). In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, where Wittgenstein introduces picture theory, he never defines it or gives it any particular name. I don't know if Wittgenstein used the terms "Bildtheorie" or "Abbildtheorie" in other writings or correspondence. Cfrhansen (talk) 15:09, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Plans to move to Soviet Union

It's not mentioned anywhere on the article from what I can see, though it is mentioned on Francis Skinner's wikipedia article. Should be worth adding to this one. Aristaeusapiculturist (talk) 22:16, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

The claim at Francis Skinner is unsourced. What does Monk (1990) say about this? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:44, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

to Kernes. 30.06.35 , LW: “I have now more or less decided to go to Russia as a Tourist in September and see whether it is possible for me to get a suitable job there” - McGuinness, Brian (2012). Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911 - 1951. 978-1-4443-5089-0. p.244

"In 1934, Wittgenstein disclosed to Drury that he and Skinner had formed a plan of going to live and work in Russia... Wittgenstein's friends were unclear what he and Skinner proposed to do in Russia: Ray Monk comments: 'The impression they received was that Wittgenstein wanted "to abandon philosophy" and "settle in Russia as a manual worker, or possibly to take up medicine'. According to Monk, this latter was an option Wittgenstein had long considered to the extent of securing a commitment to support him financially in the venture from Keynes (see: Monk, pp. 347 and 350). ... Wittgenstein visited Russia on his own in September 1935; Skinner was too ill to travel" Hayes, John (2018) The Selected Writings of Maurice O’Connor Drury: On Wittgenstein, Philosophy, Religion and Psychiatry. 978-1-350-09154-2. p.21 Jy Houston (talk) 05:32, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Many thanks for the clarification, Jy Houston. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:09, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

"Several times in the course of his life Wittgenstein expressed the wish to live in Russia. Those who knew him never had a clear idea of what his motives might be, Fania Pascal thought that possibly it was a desire to escape from Western civilisation. She surmised that ‘his feeling for Russia would have had at all times more to do with Tolstoy’s moral teachings, with Dostoevsky’s spiritual insights, than with any political or social matters.’ Also, the hardship of life in Russia in the 1930s ‘might have appealed to Wittgenstein’s ascetic nature’. Rush Rhees thinks that Wittgenstein might have wanted to practise medicine in the newly colonised areas on the periphery of the USSR, where life would be primitive. He also says that Wittgenstein was strongly sympathetic with the emphasis that the Russian regime at that time placed on ‘manual labour’. [...] Wittgenstein visited Russia in the summer of 1935, and then returned to teaching and writing in Cambridge. He did not speak to Rhees, or apparently to others, of the impressions he had received. And he was not a person to whom one would say, ‘Well, Wittgenstein, what did you think of Russia?’"

[Fania Pascal, taught LW and Skinner Russian in the 1930's]

Malcolm, Norman (1981). "Wittgenstein's Confessions". London Review of Books. Vol.03, no.21 [a review of Rush Rhees (ed.), Ludwig Wittgenstein. Personal Recollections (1981)]

-not that I think you need more verification as such, just was reading it and found it interesting, all best, Jy Jy Houston (talk) 21:43, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Deletion of sentence

I deleted "He later expressed remorse for these incidents, and spent the remainder of his life lecturing and attempting to prepare a second manuscript for publication, which was published posthumously as the hugely influential ''Philosophical Investigations''. He obviously would not have expressed remorse for working during World War II as a hospital porter in London and for working as a hospital laboratory technician. The passage must have said that he expressed remorse for abusing his students, and an editor must have added the two instances of hospital work before instead of after the statement that he expressed remorse. He also did not spend the remainder of his life working on P.I. only after working as a hospital laboratory technician. That statement too must have been inserted in the wrong place. Maurice Magnus (talk) 18:59, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Austrian or Austrian-British?

The opening sentence says that W was "an Austrian philosopher." Shouldn't that be "Austrian-British"? I think that he took British citizenship at one point, but I can't confirm it, because Monk's index is inadequate. But I don't know that British citizenship is necessary to be considered Austrian-British. Wittgenstein lived the second half of his life mostly in Britain, and he wrote his later philosophy in Britian. I don't want to change this without some feedback, because it seems like the sort of question that might have been discussed before. Maurice Magnus (talk) 03:36, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

Yes he did. The University of Cambridge here says: "After his return in 1929, Wittgenstein spent much of the rest of his life in Cambridge, remaining as Professor until 1947, and taking British citizenship. and Oxford Reference here says "He became a naturalized British citizen in 1938. I'd be surprised if Monk does not mention it. Whether or not this fact warrants a change to the first sentence of the article is a separate question. Martinevans123 (talk) 08:26, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

p.s. James C. Klagge (2001, page 239) here explains that he was prompted by the Anschluss, when the Nuremberg Laws became applicable to the Wittgenstein family. Martinevans123 (talk) 08:30, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

But the article already has this: "He was naturalised as a British subject shortly after on 12 April 1939." Not sure why Oxford Reference gives a different date. I think it's all covered very clearly in the article already. Changing to "an Austrian-British philosopher" might be warranted, not sure. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:01, 6 April 2025 (UTC)

References