Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Philosopher
Biography Project Paper
PHL/215
Ludwig Wittgenstein
In this biography, Team A will endeavour in order to look at the life span, eras, as well
as important hypotheses of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In order to complete these types of
projects, important ideas of the period, earlier ways of thinking, Wittgenstein’s efforts,
the tradition as well as the period of time in which he survived will be analyzed.
Key Concepts that Comprised Wittgenstein’s Theories
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian thinker that worked mainly in
reasoning, the principle of math, the doctrine of mind, as well as the philosophy of
terminology (Paul, 2004). Wittgenstein started off preparing in order to become an
engineer however during learning math as well as reasoning he became involved with
the philosophical issues of these 2 specialties as well as the work of Bertrand Russell
operate on (Robephiles, 2009). He abandoned his education as well as gone to
Cambridge in order to study with Russell. Russell regarded him the most brilliant
student he ever had and at the age of twenty-three asserted Wittgenstein had mastered
everything which he might possibly teach him (Robephiles, 2009). After a lot of years,
Wittgenstein became confident as a result of many years of assessing philosophy
hypotheses that his previous hypotheses were not right. While being employed as a
school teacher he developed the ordinary language hypothesis. This led many people in
order to think that teaching kids assisted him grow as well as eventually ended up
resulting in him modifying his previous hypothesis since it was restricted as well as not
precise. He believed that language did not obtain its meaning from the mixture of
representations as well as reasoning, as he had previously mentioned, however that it
took its meaning from the associations of use in everyday speech (Robephiles, 2009).
In simple words, he concludes that language just has meaning in the context in which it
is used. The nature of his latest philosophy is heralded as anti-systematic through and
through, but still favorable to real philosophical knowledge of conventional issues.
Wittgenstein’s Contributions to Philosophy
Ludwig Wittgenstein, a thinker in the domains of logistics, math, the mind, as well as
language, is usually regarded “the most important contributor to the growth of analytic
philosophy in the 20th century” (Jones, R.B., 1998). A number of significant
contributions to philosophy Wittgenstein has made are the Tractatus of 1921,
Philosophical Inspections of 1953, and also the Language game, that Wittgenstein
explains in these 2 documents. Wittgenstein’s concepts in many cases are split into 2
stages (Moore & Bruder, 2011), the very first associated with his younger self, who
authored the Tractatus, and also the second stage relating to his later Philosophical
Investigations as well as rejection of his previous work.
The Tractatus, although later on discarded by Wittgenstein, was believed to be an
“important occurrence in the philosophical world” by Bertrand Russell (Biletzki & Matar,
2009). The explanation for this is that Wittgenstein’s Tractatus dealt with a lot of main
issues as well as offered 7 fundamental propositions that started with a metaphysical
deduction: The planet is made up of facts. This ultimately resulted in Wittgenstein’s
popular idea that likened photos to ideas as well as the very important result that
speech is a logical consequence of the necessity in order to share information that can't
be simply shared by way of body gestures as well as silence.
Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later release, Philosophical Investigations, dismissed his earlier
work in a way which created a type of paradox. Whilst in the Tractatus, Wittgenstein
said philosophy in order to be something which must not be approached dogmatically.
But, in the Investigations, Wittgenstein discards as well as criticizes his own earlier work
as a dogmatic technique as well as concentrates mostly on the idea of his languagegames as well as family similarities instead of attempting in order to suggest ideas
which would guide a person to think that language is the outcome of a general function.
Wittgenstein describes that, “a photo used decides what it is a photo of…Similarly,
exactly what a sentence means is dependent upon the use to which it is put within a
given context or language game” (Moore & Bruder, 2011).
For that reason, what exactly are these types of language games? Wittgenstein states
that philosophers of language make an effort in order to force language into a rigid
group of rules concerning the concept of its origin, as he did in the Tractatus, and just
arrives at unusual as well as wrong results or hypotheses of language due to this. He
continues in order to turn down typical reasoning offered by earlier philosophers as well
as explains his language games like a method which, when they do stick to some
particular properties, is not as rigid and precise as earlier explanations of language and
it has “no set of perfect basic propositions to which all other propositions are reducible”
(Moore & Bruder, 2011). Wittgenstein’s language games go to fine detail employing a
restricted choice of words as well as shows to the reader how broad language could be
and also the few principles which it follows, however avoids offering these games a
specific explanation or description, abandoning the ideas driving behind these games in
order to be abstract and available to idea as well as argument. There are 2 popular
phases of Wittgenstein's thinking as well as they both are considered to be crucial in
their respective times. Wittgenstein had shown his earlier thought about philosophy in
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus book. The book demonstrated key ideas of his thoughts
on the use of latest reasoning to metaphysics, by way of language; he offered new
insights into the relationships between planet, thought as well as language and thus into
the nature of philosophy (Biletzki, 2009). It is the later Wittgenstein, mainly
acknowledged in the Philosophical Investigations that took the greater innovative part in
analyzing almost all of conventional philosophy including its climax in his own early
work.
Cultural and Time Period Influences on Wittgenstein’s Ideas
Wittgenstein’s earlier works may be classified into 2 different times of thought that were
impacted by the earlier philosophers who concentrated on metaphysics, reasoning, as
well as language. The 1st of these, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is known to
several to be early Wittgenstein. When serving in the Austrian military in World War I he
was seen in order to have passed the time writing down hints that later was discovered
in order to have been led to the completion of the Tractatus. This book created from his
notebooks, may be considered in order to have been impacted a lot of earlier
philosophers namely Arthur Schopenhauer, his instructor Bertrand Russell, as well as
buddy Gottlob Frege. Their effect is what assisted in order to steer Wittgenstein in the
sensible building of a philosophical system in order to find the boundaries on the planet,
thinking, as well as language. The Tractatus was an effort at differentiating between
rubbish as well as real knowledge. It carried on in order to deal with the main issues of
philosophy that cope with the planet, thinking as well as language, as well as in order to
offer a solution to these issues that is based in reasoning as well as in the nature of
representation.
Later Wittgenstein which several acknowledge was not brought to light till following his
demise while Investigations was released. This is the phase of Wittgenstein’s
philosophy which followed questions traditionally recognized as epistemological. This
latter work was extensively related to social as well as changes of views that resulted in
a distinct stage in Wittgenstein’s philosophical way of thinking. Whether this
transformation was brought on by his experiences at Cambridge University or the vital
modifications which community was going through at that time is not definitely known. In
his earlier works he asserted there was an exact connection between language as well
as truth. Though his later works criticized this belief and considered language like a tool
for a shared context and not always associated with truth. It is not well known if whether
these 2 opposing works are a part of his growing philosophy or modifications to it
because of the philosophical modifications which were being created by community in
the 2 time periods.
Wittgenstein’s School of Thought Versus His Predecessors
Ludwig Wittgenstein is among the most important philosophers in the last century, and
revered by some of the most important philosophers for example Immanuel Kant. In
Wittgensteins earlier years his work was affected by Arthur Schopenhaur also his
instructor Bertrand Russell and Gottlob. Freg and Wittgenstein became very good
friends. Wittgenstein’s work and the work of the above thinker led to the Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus that was the only book which Wittgenstein released. It claims to
conquer main philosophy problems, and was held in high esteem by the anti metaphysical. The Tractasus is based on a concept that philosophical problems
originate from misinterpretations of the reasoning of language, attempting in order to
describe what reasoning is. Wittgenstein’s future work was based on the philosophical
investigations that combines the problem of reasoning and language, however takes a
lesser technical way to philosophy queries. It has additionally led to a motivation of
ordinary language philosophy.
The start of the twentieth century there was a different sort of philosophy building. The
kind of philosophy is known as Analytic or called Linguistic philosophy. The 2 important
philosophers were Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell. The most known features
are that philosophers do not discuss the planet directly, just discuss the planet
indirectly, and just discuss statements concerning the planet. The subject matter of
Linguistic or Analytic philosophy is not reality its language as per Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Conclusion
He is regarded by several to be the best thinker of the 20th century. He continues in
order to impact existing philosophical thought in subjects as varied as reasoning and
language, conception and plan, ethics and faith, appearance and tradition. One can't
ever appraise the real greatness or measure just how much one such as Wittgenstein
has impacted the planet however one can certainly deduce that he has made a stamp in
history which will be kept in mind.