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Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein (26-Apr-1889 – 29 Apr-1951) was born in Vienna. His paternal grandparents, after they had converted from Judaism to Protestantism, moved from Saxony in Germany to Vienna in Austria-Hungary. Here is where Ludwig's father, Karl, gained wealth and esteem as one of the leading businessmen in the iron and steel industry. Ludwig's mother, Leopoldine, was a Catholic, but her father was also of Jewish descent.

Ludwig was baptized in a Catholic church and would be given a Catholic burial by his friends when he died, although he was not a believing or practicing Catholic in his later life.

Although numerous collections from Wittgenstein's notebooks, papers, and lectures have been published since his death, he published only one philosophical book in his own lifetime – the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

At first Wittgenstein believed that the Tractatus definitively solved all the problems of philosophy, and he subsequently gave up philosophical work for several years. During this time he worked as a schoolteacher, a gardener at a monastery, and finally as an architect for his sister's new house in Vienna.

Eventually, Wittgenstein returned to philosophy criticizing many elements of the Tractatus. The development of a new philosophical method and a new understanding of language would culminate in his second magnum opus, the posthumously-published Philosophical Investigations.

• Ray Monk on Wittgenstein
• Daniel Dennet on Wittgenstein
• David Pears on Wittgenstein
• Extract from the article on Wittgenstein from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Extract from the article on Wittgenstein from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy