In Our Time: Philosophy

Wittgenstein

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Dec 4, 2003
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ANECDOTE

Wittgenstein's Early Life and Shift to Philosophy

  • Wittgenstein grew up in a wealthy, highly cultured Viennese family surrounded by leading cultural figures.
  • He shifted from engineering in Manchester to philosophy by directly approaching Bertrand Russell at Cambridge.
INSIGHT

Logic as Boundary of Language

  • Wittgenstein saw logic not as describing the world but as setting its boundaries of what can intelligibly be said.
  • Language describes all possible states of affairs, so logic sets the limits of language and reality.
INSIGHT

Whereof One Cannot Speak

  • Wittgenstein’s final proposition urges silence about what cannot be clearly expressed.
  • He believed many philosophical confusions arise from trying to say what can only be shown.
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