Wittgenstein 1889 1951 In 90 Minutes

Philosophical thought is deciphered and made comprehensible and interesting to almost everyone.

Tres de los cuatro hermanos varones de Ludwig Wittgenstein –a cual más brillante– acabarían por suicidarse, una posibilidad que contempló el propio Ludwig varias veces a lo largo de su vida. Afortunadamente, quien estaba destinado a ser el miembro útil de una cosmopolita familia vienesa no llegó nunca a atentar contra su vida; por el contrario, cambió la aeronáutica por la filosofía y, en cierto modo, puso el punto final a veinticinco siglos de pensamiento filosófico. Wittgenstein fue un lógico excepcional que desconfiaba del lenguaje y cuya solución a los problemas tradicionales de la filosofía pasaba por reducirlos a la lógica. Todo lo demás –metafísica, estética, ética, la filosofía misma– quedaba excluido: «Sobre lo que no se puede hablar, se debe callar». En Wittgenstein en 90 minutos, Paul Strathern expone de manera clara y concisa la vida e ideas del torturado genio vienés. El libro incluye una selección de sus escritos, una breve lista de lecturas sugeridas para aquellos que deseen profundizar en su pensamiento, y cronologías que sitúan a Wittgenstein en su época y en una sinopsis más amplia de la filosofía.

"The Voices of Wittgenstein brings together for the first time in both the original German and English translation over one hundred short essays in philosophical logic and the philosophy of mind of historical importance to understanding Wittgenstein's philosophical thought and development in the 1930s. It is the only substantial corpus of Wittgenstein's work that has remained relatively unknown and unavailable until now. Transcribed from the papers of Friedrich Waismann and dating from 1932-1935, the majority are highly important dictations by Wittgenstein to Waismann. The volume also includes texts of redrafted material by Waismann closely based on the dictations." --Book Jacket.

"Remarkable how well Bouwsma understood Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems and how intelligently he was able to recount Wittgenstein's discussions. The bits about sensation are especially good. And the asides about the other philosophers--e.g. Dewey, Russell, Anscombe--are, while not frivolous, gossipy and titillating." --Riley Wallihan, Western Oregon University

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) has exerted a more powerful influence on contemporary philosophy than any other twentieth-century thinker. But what is the nature of this influence and why has it proved so enduring? In Wittgenstein's Lasting Significance, twelve contemporary philosophers explore the issues surrounding Wittgenstein's importance and relevance to modern thought. Their articles, all of which are published here for the first time, cover the entirety of Wittgenstein's major publications: the Tracatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations, On Certainty and Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. They discuss how much originality and continuity can be found in Wittgenstein's thought, how he relates to current traditions and movements within philosophy, and what we can learn from his conceptions of language, knowledge, mathematics and logic. The international set of contributors are renowned for their work in both Wittgenstein studies and other fields of philosophy, making Wittgenstein's Lasting Significance an important collection for anyone interested in contemporary philosophy.

The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance, it immediately convinced many of its readers and captured the imagination of all. Its chief influence, at first, was on the Logical Positivists of the 1920s and 1930s, but many other philosophers were stimulated by its philosophy of language, finding attractive, even if ultimately unsatisfactory, its view that propositions were pictures of reality. Perhaps most of all, its own author, after his return to philosophy in the late 1920s, was fascinated by its vision of an inexpressible, crystalline world of logical relationships. C.K. Ogden's translation of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has a unique provenance. As revealed in Letters of C.K. Ogden (1973) and in correspondence in The Times Literary Supplement, Wittgenstein, Ramsey and Moore all worked with Ogden on the translation, which had Wittgenstein's complete approval. The very name Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was of Ogden's devising; and there is very strong feeling among philosophers that, among the differing translations of this work, Ogden's is the definitive text - and Wittgenstein's version of the English equivalent of his Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung.