Wittgenstein: Philosophy in an Hour

by Paul Strathern

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Wittgenstein in just one hour.

Ludwig Wittgenstein saw himself as 'the last philosopher'. In his view, philosophy in the traditional sense was finished. A superb logician, Wittgenstein distrusted language and sought to solve the problems of philosophy by reducing them to the purest form of logic. Everything else - metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, finally even philosophy itself - was excluded. He famously stated, 'of that which we cannot speak we must remain silent', thus eliminating all concepts which do not arise from experience or are amenable to logical thought

Wittgenstein: Philosophy in an Hour is a concise, expert account of Wittgenstein's life and philosophical ideas - entertainingly written and easy to understand. Also included are selections from his work, suggested further reading and chronologies that place Wittgenstein in the context of the broader scheme of philosophy.

• ISBN13: 9780007464975
• Publish Date: 1 March 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperPress
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 94
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[brokentune]

Ludwig Wittgenstein must have been frustrating and infuriating to be around. I truly feel for his contemporaries.

As for his philosophy - having tried on several occasions to make sense of it, I am concluding that Wittgenstein's logic is beyond me. And from what I gather from Strahern's brief introduction, Wittgenstein's philosophy is beyond most people - except for Wittgenstein of course. What I do know about it is that it is based on pure logic and fact, and that he dismissed anything that was not based on either logic or fact - which conveniently included any criticism that his idea contained a paradox.

So, devising my own logical system of facts, I'm proposing that Wittgenstein's theory that we can only discuss what is based on fact, is not a fact.
And rightfully so, I am done discussing it.