Ludwig Wittgenstein facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Ludwig Wittgenstein
Portrait of Wittgenstein on being awarded a scholarship from Trinity College, Cambridge, 1929
Born	Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889-04-26)26 April 1889 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	29 April 1951(1951-04-29) (aged 62) Cambridge, England
Nationality	Austrian
Education	Technische Hochschule (Diploma) Victoria University of Manchester (PhD, not completed) Trinity College, Cambridge (PhD)
Notable work	Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Philosophical Investigations

Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy Linguistic turn Logical atomism Logical behaviorism Correspondence theory of truth
Institutions	Trinity College, Cambridge
Main interests	Logic, metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, epistemology
Notable ideas	Picture theory of language Truth functions States of affairs Logical necessity Use theory of meaning Language-games Private language argument Family resemblance Rule following Forms of life Wittgensteinian fideism Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics Ordinary language philosophy Ideal language analysis Wittgenstein's ladder Quietism Seeing-as Depth and Surface grammar
Influences Gottlob Frege, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, G. E. Moore, Frank P. Ramsey, Oswald Spengler, Ludwig Boltzmann, William James, Karl Kraus, Augustine of Hippo, Adolf Loos, Piero Sraffa, Otto Weininger, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schopenhauer, Baruch Spinoza, Leo Tolstoy, L. E. J. Brouwer, Heinrich Hertz, Hermann von Helmholtz
Influenced Alvin Plantinga, Rogers Albritton, Bertrand Russell, Norman Malcolm, G. E. Moore, Frank P. Ramsey, Vienna Circle, Rudolf Carnap, Alan Turing, G. E. M. Anscombe, Peter Geach, Barry Stroud, Crispin Wright, John McDowell, Duncan Pritchard, Daniel Dennett, Cora Diamond, Alice Crary, James F. Conant, Jürgen Habermas, Gilbert Ryle, Saul Kripke, John Searle, Hans Sluga, Peter Hacker, Ian Hacking, Stephen Toulmin, Quentin Skinner, Paul Feyerabend, Jean-François Lyotard, Richard Rorty, Jules Vuillemin, Jacques Bouveresse, Reuben Goodstein, Casimir Lewy, Thomas Kuhn

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (born April 26, 1889 – died April 29, 1951) was an important Austrian philosopher. He focused on the basics of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, how our minds work, and how we use language. Many people see him as one of the most important thinkers of the 1900s.

Before he passed away at 62, Wittgenstein had only published one book, called Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. His second major book, Philosophical Investigations, came out soon after his death. Both books are considered very important in a field of study called analytic philosophy.

Ludwig Wittgenstein's Life
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Ludwig Wittgenstein's Life

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna, Austria, on April 26, 1889. He was the youngest of eight children. His family was one of the richest and most well-known in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

His father, Karl Wittgenstein, became very wealthy from iron and steel. Ludwig's mother, Leopoldine, was an aunt of the famous economist Friedrich von Hayek. Even though his father was Protestant and his mother's father was Jewish, the Wittgenstein children were raised as Roman Catholics.

Early Studies and Philosophy

Wittgenstein first started studying mechanical engineering. While doing this, he became very interested in the basic ideas behind mathematics. He especially liked the books Principles of Mathematics by Bertrand Russell and Grundgesetze by Gottlob Frege.

In 1911, Wittgenstein met Frege and Russell. He talked about philosophy with them for a long time. Russell was very impressed by Wittgenstein. Soon, Wittgenstein began working on the foundations of logic and mathematical logic. Russell even thought Wittgenstein would continue his own work.

The Tractatus Book

Hochreit 1920. Wittgenstein is seated between his sister Helene Salzer and his friend, Arvid Sjögren.

During World War I, Wittgenstein served in the army. While in the army, he kept working on his ideas about logic. He also started to include ideas about ethics, which is the study of right and wrong.

In 1918, he learned that his friend David Pinsent had died in a plane crash. This made Wittgenstein very sad. He went to stay with his uncle, where he finished his book, the Tractatus.

At first, no publisher wanted to print it. But Russell knew it was an important book for philosophy. He wrote an introduction for it. Wittgenstein didn't like Russell's introduction because he felt Russell didn't truly understand the book. Finally, a German edition was printed in 1921, and a bilingual English-German edition came out in 1922.

After the Tractatus

Wittgenstein believed that his Tractatus had solved all the big problems in philosophy. So, he decided to leave philosophy. He went back to Austria to become a primary school teacher.

He had very high expectations for the children he taught in the countryside. He was not very patient with kids who struggled with math. However, he got good results with students who were interested, especially boys. His strict teaching style caused problems with some parents. Eventually, he quit his job, feeling like he had failed as a teacher.

After teaching, Wittgenstein worked as a gardener's helper at a monastery. Then, he worked with an architect named Paul Engelmann. This intellectual work helped him feel better.

Between 1925 and 1928, he helped his sister Margaret build a house in Vienna. Wittgenstein and Paul Engelmann designed it together. This house, called 'Haus Wittgenstein', is still standing in Vienna today.

Near the end of this project, Moritz Schlick contacted Wittgenstein. Schlick was a key person in a new group of thinkers called the Vienna Circle. This contact made Wittgenstein interested in philosophy again.

Return to Cambridge

In 1929, Wittgenstein decided to go back to Cambridge, England. When he arrived at the train station, many of England's most famous thinkers were there to meet him. He was surprised to find out he was now one of the most famous philosophers in the world.

In 1939, Wittgenstein was given a special job as a professor of Philosophy at Cambridge.

During World War II, he left Cambridge. He volunteered to work as a hospital porter (someone who helps patients) in London. He also worked as a lab assistant in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Final Years and Legacy

Wittgenstein's grave in Cambridge. People often leave small items on it.

Wittgenstein left his teaching job at Cambridge in 1947. He wanted to spend all his time writing. In 1949, he found out he had prostate cancer. By then, he had written most of the ideas for his book Philosophical Investigations. This book is often seen as his most important work.

He died from prostate cancer in Cambridge in 1951.

Images for kids

Karl Wittgenstein was one of the richest men in Europe.
Palais Wittgenstein, the family home, around 1910
Ludwig, c. 1890s
Ludwig sitting in a field as a child
From left, Helene, Rudi, Hermine, Ludwig (the baby), Gretl, Paul, Hans, and Kurt, around 1890
Ludwig (bottom-right), Paul, and their sisters, late 1890s
The Realschule in Linz
Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger (1880–1903)
Ludwig Wittgenstein, aged about eighteen
The old Technische Hochschule Berlin in Charlottenburg, Berlin
Ludwig with his friend William Eccles at the Kite-Flying Station in Glossop, Derbyshire
Wittgenstein, 1910s
Bertrand Russell, 1907
Entries from October 1914 in Wittgenstein's diary, on display at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge
Austro-Hungarian supply line over the Vršič Pass, on the Italian front, October 1917
Wittgenstein's military identity card during the First World War
The Wittgenstein family in Vienna, Summer 1917, with Kurt (furthest left) and Ludwig (furthest right) in officers' uniforms.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, schoolteacher, c. 1922
Frank P. Ramsey visited Wittgenstein in Puchberg am Schneeberg in September 1923.
Wittgenstein, 1925
Wittgenstein worked on Haus Wittgenstein between 1926 and 1929.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1930
Photograph showing Wittgenstein's house in Norway, sent by Wittgenstein to G. E. Moore, October 1936
Wittgenstein on holiday in France with Gilbert Pattisson, July 1936
Wittgenstein in the Fellows' Garden at Trinity, 1939
Wittgenstein in Swansea, Summer 1947
One of the last photographs taken of Wittgenstein, in the garden of Georg Henrik von Wright's home in Cambridge, Summer 1950; Wittgenstein had taken the sheet from his bed and draped it behind him
Plaque in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, commemorating Wittgenstein's visits in the winter of 1948–1949.
The plaque at "Storey's End", 76 Storey's Way, Cambridge, where Wittgenstein died.
Wittgenstein on his deathbed, 1951
Death notice issued by Ludwig's family
Wittgenstein's grave at the Ascension Parish Burial Ground in Cambridge
Illustration of a "duckrabbit", discussed in the Philosophical Investigations, section XI, part II
The "Wittgenstein Monument" in Skjolden, Norway, erected near the philosopher's hut in 2018 by artists Sebastian Kjølaas, Marianne Bredesen and Siri Hjorth. The "hand-mouth" pine monument can also speak and whistle.