路德维希·维特根斯坦Ludwig Wittgenstein

路德维希·维特根斯坦的父亲是Karl Wittgenstein，他是犹太人，而他的母亲是罗马天主教徒。维特根斯坦受洗加入天主教会。他的父母都非常热爱音乐，维特根斯坦在一个总是充满音乐的家中长大，勃拉姆斯是常客。维特根斯坦的父母有八个孩子，他们在艺术和智力上都非常有天赋。有三个女孩，格蕾特、赫尔米内和海伦，五个男孩汉斯、库尔特、鲁道夫、保罗和维特根斯坦。这个家庭是富有的实业家，在钢铁行业发了财，作为奥地利最富有的家庭之一，他们能够为子女提供最好的教育。

也许在这个阶段，我们应该对维特根斯坦的兄弟姐妹做一些评论，因为这将有助于理解维特根斯坦成长过程中的一些生活方式以及他所经历的事情。三个男孩，汉斯、库尔特和鲁道夫，后来都在生活中自杀了。保罗是一位有天赋的钢琴家，在第一次世界大战期间失去了一只手臂。拉威尔为他创作了Concerto for the Left Hand。格蕾特请伟大的奥地利新艺术运动画家古斯塔夫·克里姆特为她画了肖像。赫尔米娜写了一篇关于维特根斯坦的重要文章，发表在[16]上，我们从中引用了一些内容。

维特根斯坦是孩子中最小的一个，他在家里接受教育直到十四岁。他在成长过程中对机械事物表现出兴趣，十岁时就制作了一台能用的缝纫机。1903年，维特根斯坦开始在奥地利林茨的实科中学接受三年教育，该校专攻数学和自然科学。从有教养的背景进入一所满是工人阶级孩子的学校，让维特根斯坦度过了一段艰难而不快乐的时光。他不理解他的同学们，而在他们看来，他似乎16：-

……像来自另一个世界的人。

他们怎么能指望理解这个虚弱害羞、说话结巴的男孩呢？他的父亲还是奥地利最富有的人之一。然而，这所学校增强了维特根斯坦对技术的热爱，并使他决定在大学学习工程学。1906年，他前往柏林，在夏洛滕堡的工业高等学校开始学习机械工程。维特根斯坦打算攻读工程学博士学位，于1908年前往英国，并在曼彻斯特大学的一个工程实验室注册为研究生。

他的第一个项目涉及研究风筝在地球高层大气中的行为。他从这里转向进一步研究航空研究，这次是检查一种螺旋桨的设计，每个叶片的末端都有一个小型喷气发动机。在这个阶段，维特根斯坦比人们可能想象的更注重实践，鉴于他后来高度理论化的工作，他不仅研究了螺旋桨的理论设计，还实际建造并测试了它。

螺旋桨的测试是成功的，但为了研究需要理解更多数学，他开始了一项研究，很快便涉及数学基础。伯特兰·罗素在1903年出版了他的Principles of Mathematics，维特根斯坦转向这项工作，因为他寻求更好地理解他学科的基础。他对伯特兰·罗素的工作如此感兴趣，以至于他决定要学习更多。维特根斯坦前往耶拿向戈特洛布·弗雷格请教，并被告知他应该在伯特兰·罗素指导下学习。

维特根斯坦于1911年离开曼彻斯特的航空研究，前往剑桥大学三一学院跟随伯特兰·罗素学习数理逻辑。伯特兰·罗素不是那种容易被学生打动的人，但他确实对维特根斯坦印象非常深刻。伯特兰·罗素写道，教维特根斯坦是：-

……[我一生中]最令人兴奋的智力冒险之一。……[维特根斯坦拥有]火一般的热情、洞察力和智力上的纯粹，达到了相当非凡的程度。……[他]很快就学会了我所能教的一切。

伯特兰·罗素还写了[14]：-

他的性情是艺术家的性情，直觉敏锐而情绪多变。他说他每天早上满怀希望地开始工作，每天晚上则在绝望中结束。

到1912年，伯特兰·罗素已经确信维特根斯坦具有一种天才，应当将其引向数学哲学。因此，他说服维特根斯坦放弃任何仍然抱有的恢复其航空学应用数学工作的想法。

维特根斯坦提交的第一篇论文是在1912年提交给剑桥哲学会的。题为What is philosophy[12]：-

……[它]表明，从一开始维特根斯坦就认识到理解哲学问题之本质的重要性，以及反思接近这些问题的适当方法的重要性。

在剑桥的这段时期，维特根斯坦继续研究数学基础以及数理逻辑。然而，他遭受抑郁，并多次威胁自杀。他觉得剑桥不是一个理想的工作场所，因为他感到那里的学者在讨论中只是试图显得聪明，而他们的思想缺乏深度。当他告诉伯特兰·罗素他想离开剑桥去挪威时，伯特兰·罗素试图劝阻他[14]：-

我说那会很黑暗，他说他厌恶白昼。我说那会很孤独，他说他与聪明人交谈是在出卖自己的心灵。我说他疯了，他说愿上帝保佑他免于清醒。（上帝一定会。）

尽管伯特兰·罗素试图阻止他，维特根斯坦还是去了挪威的肖尔登，这段时期证明极其富有成果，他独自生活，研究逻辑和语言方面的思想，这些思想将成为他伟大著作Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus的基础。这也是他继续遭受抑郁的时期。他给赫尔米娜的信中谈到了他的精神折磨（见[16]），她写道，在这段时间里他生活在：-

……一种高度紧张的智力状态中，近乎病态。

1914年第一次世界大战爆发时，维特根斯坦立即从肖尔登前往维也纳加入奥地利军队。他渴望入伍，因为他想面对死亡[16]：-

现在我应该有机会成为一个体面的人，因为我正与死亡对视。

他先在一艘船上服役，然后在炮兵工场服役，但他发现自己的战友很难相处，因为他们对他很残忍。1916年，他作为榴弹炮团的一员被派往俄国前线，在那里他因勇敢而获得许多嘉奖。1918年，他被派往意大利北部的一个炮兵团，战争结束时他在那里，在卡西诺成为意大利人的俘虏。在这四年的现役期间，维特根斯坦写下了他伟大的逻辑学著作Tractatus，当他被俘时，手稿在他的背包里被发现。当他被关押在意大利的一个战俘营时，他被允许将手稿寄给伯特兰·罗素。

在写下了他认为是关于哲学的最终论述之后，维特根斯坦的意图是放弃对这一主题的研究。1919年从拘留中获释后，他放弃了他继承的家族财富，并在第二年接受了奥地利小学教师的培训。他接受了奥地利学校改革运动方法的培训，该运动认为教师的主要目标是激发孩子的好奇心，并帮助孩子发展成为独立思考者。该运动拒绝鼓励儿童简单地学习重复事实的教学方法。但是，尽管维特根斯坦是这些原则的坚定信仰者，并满怀热情地努力为他所教的维也纳新城山村儿童提供尽可能好的教育，但仍有因素阻碍了他的成功。也许维特根斯坦面临的最大困难是，放弃家族财富并没有使一个像他这样背景极为优越的人能够融入他所教的农民子女的文化。

在此期间，维特根斯坦再次极度不快乐，并多次接近自杀。想到自己受到孩子们的欣赏使他坚持完成任务，但他发现很难与其它教师保持友好关系。最终，主要因为觉得自己作为小学教师失败了，维特根斯坦于1925年放弃。他仍然不觉得自己想回到学术生活，所以他从事了多种不同的工作。首先，他在维也纳附近的许尔斯多夫修道院担任园丁助理，在工具棚里住了三个月。然后，他担任建筑师两年，忙于为他的妹妹格蕾特在维也纳附近设计和建造一座宅邸。

维特根斯坦在此期间并不希望回到学术生活，但他并没有完全与数学逻辑、数学基础和哲学的研究隔绝。他会见了弗兰克·普伦普顿·拉姆齐，后者正在专门研究Tractatus，并多次从剑桥前往奥地利与他讨论，他还会见了维也纳学派的哲学家。有许多理论被提出来解释他为什么回到学术生活，但其核心必定是，在他所进行的讨论中，他逐渐看到了Tractatus的问题。

1929年，维特根斯坦回到剑桥，提交了Tractatus作为他的学位论文。这部著作考察语言与世界的关系。维特根斯坦主张，词语是对象的表征，词语的组合产生命题，命题是关于实在的陈述，或者如他所说，是实在的图画。当然，这样的陈述所描绘的实在可能是真的，也可能是假的。反过来，维特根斯坦在Tractatus中呈现的世界由事实组成。这些事实可以分解为事态，事态又可以分解为对象的组合。这本质上是一种原子论，世界由简单对象构建而成。他主张语言与世界之间存在双射（一一对应）。

在回到剑桥十六年后所写的Philosophical Investigations序言中，维特根斯坦写道：-

……自从十六年前重新开始从事哲学研究以来，我被迫认识到我在那第一本书中所写的内容存在严重错误。在我生命的最后两年里，我与弗兰克·普伦普顿·拉姆齐进行了无数次讨论，他对我的观点的批评帮助我认识到这些错误——其程度连我自己都几乎无法估量。

然而，直到1953年，即维特根斯坦去世两年后，这部第二部伟大著作Philosophical Investigations才出版。在这部著作中，维特根斯坦研究了[12]：-

……语言哲学和哲学心理学。……这本书的形式相当独特。……我们首先看到一部分由693条各不相同的、编号的评论组成，长度从一行到几段不等，第二部分由十四个章节组成，长度从半页到三十六页不等……这些评论不是提出论证和明确陈述的结论，而是反思广泛的主题，却从未对其中任何一个主题作出明确的最终陈述。

他在Philosophical Investigations中的方法与他在这Tractatus中的方法有何不同？他仍然关注语言，但在他后期的思想中，词语不是对象的固定不变的表征，而是多样的。他将词语与工具箱中的工具进行了类比：-

……有一把锤子、钳子、一把锯、一把螺丝刀、一把尺子、一个胶锅、钉子和螺丝。词语的功能就像这些物体的功能一样多样。

并不是一个词有含义，而是它有用法。他给出的另一个说明是词与象棋棋子之间的类比。棋子的意义不是由它的物理外观决定的，而是由象棋规则决定的。同样，一个词的意义就是它受规则支配的用法。

获得博士学位后，维特根斯坦被任命为剑桥的讲师，并成为三一学院的会士。在接下来的几年里，维特根斯坦在那里讲授逻辑、语言和数学哲学。1939年，他被任命为剑桥的哲学讲席。维特根斯坦的学生Malcolm在[10]中写到了他1939年参加的维特根斯坦的讲座：-

他的讲座没有准备，也没有笔记。他有一次告诉我，他试图照着笔记讲课，但对结果感到厌恶；冒出来的思想是“陈腐的”，或者，正如他对另一位朋友所说，当他开始读这些词时，它们看起来像“尸体”。在他后来使用的方法中，据他告诉我，他为讲座做的唯一准备就是在开课前花几分钟回忆上次课上探究所达到的进程。在讲座开始时，他会对此作一个简短的总结，然后从那里开始，试图用新的思想推进研究。……[在]这些课堂讨论中发生的，很大程度上是新的研究。

G H von Wright是维特根斯坦在剑桥的学生。他写道[10]：-

维特根斯坦认为，他作为教师的影响总体上对弟子们独立思想的发展是有害的。恐怕他是对的。我相信我能部分理解为什么会这样。由于他思想的深度和独创性，理解维特根斯坦的思想非常困难，而将其融入自己的思想则更加困难。与此同时，他人格和风格的魔力又极具吸引力和说服力。向维特根斯坦学习而不接受他的表达方式和口头禅，甚至不模仿他的语调、神态和手势，几乎是不可能的。

这里有一种暗示，即维特根斯坦永远不会适合作为一大群学生和研究者的领导者。尽管他确实有学生后来做出了重要工作，却仍然忠于他的思维方式，但维特根斯坦似乎始终是一个孤立的人物。当他写道以下内容时，他似乎理解其中的原因：-

难道只有我无法建立一个学派，还是哲学家从来就做不到这一点？我无法建立一个学派，因为我并不真的想被模仿。至少不想被那些在哲学期刊上发表文章的人模仿。

维特根斯坦留在剑桥直到1947年辞职，除了第二次世界大战期间他在伦敦的盖伊医院做医院搬运工。他还在皇家维多利亚医院做过实验室助理，然后在1944年回到剑桥履行职责。回到剑桥三年后，他退休并搬到爱尔兰西海岸一个偏僻的小屋。他的健康恶化，1949年诊断出癌症。维特根斯坦对诊断似乎并不难过，因为他说他不想再活下去了。他继续研究他的想法直到去世前几天，他的智力的力量和深度并未因疾病而减弱。

McGinn在12中对维特根斯坦给出了公正的评价：-

他思想的力量和独创性显示出独特的哲学头脑，许多人乐于称他为天才。

维特根斯坦对自己的著作从不满意，因此生前只出版了一部主要著作，即Tractatus。他的讲座和笔记中的大量材料随后被出版。他发现自己的想法难以理解，他对此很清楚，并觉得在某种程度上他不适合他所生活的世界。让我们以他自己关于为什么想法难以理解的写作中的一段引文结束：-

为什么哲学如此复杂？它本应完全简单。哲学解开我们在思考中无意义地打下的结。要做到这一点，它必须做出与这些结一样复杂的动作。尽管哲学的结果是简单的，但如果要成功，其方法就不能简单。哲学的复杂性不是其主题的复杂性，而是我们打结的理解的复杂性。

Ludwig Wittgenstein's father was Karl Wittgenstein who was Jewish while his mother was a Roman Catholic. Ludwig was baptised into the Catholic Church. His parents were both very musical and Ludwig was brought up in a home which was always filled with music, Brahms being a frequent guest. Ludwig's parents had eight children who were all highly gifted both artistically and intellectually. There were three girls, Gretl, Hermine, and Helene, and five boys Hans, Kurt, Rudolf, Paul, and Ludwig. The family were wealthy industrialists having made a fortune in the steel industry and, being one of the wealthiest families in Austria, they were able to provide the best possible education for their children.

Perhaps at this stage we should make some comments on Ludwig's brothers and sisters, for it will help to understand something of Ludwig's lifestyle as he grew up and also what he went through. Three of the boys, Hans, Kurt, and Rudolf, all committed suicide later in their lives. Paul was a talented pianist who lost an arm during World War I. Ravel composed Concerto for the Left Hand for him. Gretl had her portrait painted by Gustav Klimt, the great Austrian Art Nouveau painter. Hermine wrote an important article on Wittgenstein which is published in [16] and from which we give some quotes.

Ludwig was the youngest of the children and he was educated at home until he was fourteen years of age. He showed an interest in mechanical things as he grew up and when he was ten years old he made a working sewing machine. In 1903 Wittgenstein began three years of schooling at the Realschule in Linz, Austria, which specialised in mathematics and natural science. Coming from a cultured background into a school filled with working class children gave Wittgenstein a difficult and unhappy time. He did not understand his fellow pupils and to them he seemed [16]:-

... like a being from another world.

How could they be expected to understand the frail shy boy who spoke with a stammer, and whose father was one of the richest men in Austria? The school enhanced Wittgenstein's love of technology, however, and made him decide to study engineering at university. In 1906 he went to Berlin where began his studies in mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg. Intending to study for his doctorate in engineering, Wittgenstein went to England in 1908 and registered as a research student in an engineering laboratory of the University of Manchester.

His first project involved the study of the behaviour of kites in the upper atmosphere of the earth. He moved from this to further study of aeronautical research, this time examining the design of a propeller with a small jet engine on the end of each blade. At this stage Wittgenstein was much more practically minded than one might suppose, given his later highly theoretical work, and he not only studied the theoretical design of the propeller but he actually built and tested it.

The tests of the propeller were successful but, needing to understand more mathematics for his research, he began a study which soon involved him in the foundations of mathematics. Russell had published his Principles of Mathematics in 1903 and Wittgenstein turned to this work as he sought a better understanding of foundations of his subject. He became so interested in Russell's work that he decided that he wanted to learn more. Wittgenstein travelled to Jena to ask Frege's advice and was told that he should study under Russell.

Wittgenstein left his aeronautical research in Manchester in 1911 to study mathematical logic with Russell in Trinity College, Cambridge. Russell was not one to be easily impressed by a student, but he was certainly very impressed by Wittgenstein. Russell wrote that teaching Wittgenstein was:-

... one of the most exciting intellectual adventures [of my life]. ... [Wittgenstein had] fire and penetration and intellectual purity to a quite extraordinary degree. ... [He] soon knew all that I had to teach.

Russell also wrote [14]:-

His disposition is that of an artist, intuitive and moody. He says every morning he begins his work with hope, and every evening he ends in despair.

By 1912 Russell had become convinced that Wittgenstein possessed a genius which should be directed towards mathematical philosophy. He therefore persuaded Wittgenstein to give up any ideas that he still had to resume his applied mathematical work on aeronautics.

The first paper that Wittgenstein presented was to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1912. Entitled What is philosophy [12]:-

... [it] shows that from the very beginning Wittgenstein recognised the importance of understanding the nature of philosophical problems and of reflecting on the appropriate methods for approaching them.

During this period at Cambridge, Wittgenstein continued to work on the foundations of mathematics and also on mathematical logic. He suffered depression, however, and threatened suicide on a number of occasions. He found Cambridge a less than ideal place to work since he felt that the academics there were merely trying to be clever in their discussions while their ideas lacked depth. When he told Russell that he wanted to leave Cambridge and go to Norway, Russell tried to dissuade him [14]:-

I said it would be dark, and he said he hated daylight. I said it would be lonely, and he said he prostituted his mind talking to intelligent people. I said he was mad, and he said God preserve him from sanity. (God certainly will.)

Despite Russell's attempts to stop him, Wittgenstein went to Skjolden in Norway and this proved an extremely fruitful period during which lived in isolation working on his ideas on logic and language that would form the basis of his great work the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. It was also a period when he continued to suffer depression. His letters to Hermine spoke of his mental torment (see [16]) and she wrote that during this time he lived:-

... in a heightened state of intellectual intensity, which verged on the pathological.

When World War I broke out in 1914 Wittgenstein immediately travelled from Skjolden to Vienna to join the Austrian army. He was keen to enlist since he wanted to face death [16]:-

Now I should have the chance to be a decent human being, for I'm standing eye to eye with death.

He served first on a ship then in an artillery workshop but he found his fellow soldiers very difficult as they subjected him to cruelty. In 1916 he was sent as a member of a howitzer regiment to the Russian front where he gained many distinctions for bravery. In 1918 he was sent to north Italy in an artillery regiment and he was there at the end of the war, becoming a prisoner of the Italians in Cassino. During these four years of active service Wittgenstein had written his great work in logic, the Tractatus, and the manuscript was found in his rucksack when he was taken prisoner. He was allowed to send the manuscript to Russell while he was held in a prison camp in Italy.

Having written what he believed was his final word on philosophy, Wittgenstein's intention was now to give up his study of the subject. Released from detention in 1919, he gave away the family fortune he had inherited and, in the following year, trained as a primary school teacher in Austria. He was trained in the methods of the Austrian School Reform Movement, which believed that the main aim of a teacher was to arouse a child's curiosity and to help the child develop as an independent thinker. The Movement rejected the method of teaching which encouraged children to simply learn to repeat facts. But although Wittgenstein was a strong believer in these principles and tried with great enthusiasm to provide the children that he taught in the mountain village of Wiener Neustadt with the best possible education, there were factors working against his success. Perhaps the biggest difficulty that Wittgenstein faced was that giving away the family fortune did nothing to enable someone with his highly privileged background to fit into the culture of the children of farmers whom he taught.

During this period Wittgenstein was again desperately unhappy and came close to committing suicide on a number of occasions. The thought that he was appreciated by the children kept him at his task, but he found difficulties in keeping relations between himself and the other teachers on a friendly basis. Eventually, feeling largely that he had failed as a primary school teacher, Wittgenstein gave up in 1925. He still did not feel that he wanted to return to an academic life so he worked at a number of different jobs. First he worked as a gardener's assistant in the Hüsseldorf monastery near Vienna, living in the tool-shed for three months. Then he worked as an architect for two years occupied in the design and construction of a mansion house for his sister Gretl near Vienna.

Although Wittgenstein had not wished to return to academic life during this period he was not completely isolated from the study of mathematical logic, the foundations of mathematics, and philosophy. He met with Ramsey, who was making a special study of the Tractatus and had travelled from Cambridge to Austria on several occasions to have discussions with him, and he also met with philosophers from the Vienna Circle. There have been many theories put forward to explain why he returned to academic life, but at the heart of it must be that in the discussions he had, he came to see problems with the Tractatus.

In 1929 Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge where he submitted the Tractatus as his doctoral thesis. This work considers the relationship of language to the world. Words, Wittgenstein argued, were representations of objects and combining words led to propositions which were statements about reality, or as he says, pictures of reality. Such statements, of course, may picture a reality which is true or false. Conversely, the world as presented by Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, consists of facts. These facts can be broken down into states of affair, which in turn can be broken down into combinations of objects. This is essentially an atomic theory with the world built from simple objects. He argues that there is a bijection (one-one correspondence) between language and the world.

In the Preface to Philosophical Investigations written sixteen years after he returned to Cambridge, Wittgenstein wrote:-

... since beginning to occupy myself with philosophy again, sixteen years ago, I have been forced to recognise grave mistakes in what I wrote in that first book. I was helped to realise these mistakes - to a degree which I myself am hardly able to estimate - by the criticism which my ideas encountered from Frank Ramsey, with whom I discussed them in innumerable conversations during the last two years of his life.

However, it was not until 1953, two years after Wittgenstein's death, that this second great work Philosophical Investigations was published. In this work Wittgenstein studied [12]:-

... the philosophy of language and philosophical psychology. ... the form of the book is quite unique. ... we first get a part of 693 distinct, numbered remarks, varying in length from one line to several paragraphs, and a second part of fourteen sections, half a page to thirty-six pages long ... instead of presenting arguments and clearly stated conclusions, these remarks reflect on a wide range of topics without ever producing a clear final statement on any of them.

How does his approach in the Philosophical Investigations differ from that in the Tractatus? He is still concerned with language, but in his later thinking words are not unvarying representations of objects, but rather are diverse. He draws an analogy between words and tools in a tool-box:-

... there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a ruler, a glue-pot, nails and screws. The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.

It was not that a word had a meaning, rather it had a use. Another illustration that he gives is an analogy between words and pieces in a chess game. The meaning of a chess piece is not determined by its physical appearance, rather it is determined by the rules of chess. Similarly the meaning of a word is its use governed by rules.

After the award of his doctorate, Wittgenstein was appointed a lecturer at Cambridge and he was made a fellow of Trinity College. In the following years Wittgenstein lectured there on logic, language, and the philosophy of mathematics. He was appointed to the chair in philosophy at Cambridge in 1939. Malcolm, a student of Wittgenstein, writes in [10] about Wittgenstein's lectures which he attended in 1939:-

His lectures were given without preparation and without notes. He told me once that he tried to lecture from notes but was disgusted with the result; the thoughts that came out were 'stale', or, as he put it to another friend, the words looked like 'corpses' when he began to read them. In the methods that he came to use, his only preparation for the lecture, as he told me, was to spend a few minutes before the class met, recollecting the course that the inquiry had taken at the previous meeting. At the beginning of the lecture he would give a brief summary of this and then he would start from there, trying to advance the investigation with fresh thoughts. ... [W]hat occurred in these class meetings was largely new research.

G H von Wright was a pupil of Wittgenstein at Cambridge. He writes [10]:-

Wittgenstein thought that his influence as a teacher was, on the whole, harmful to the development of independent minds in his disciples. I am afraid that he was right. And I believe that I can partly understand why it should be so. Because of the depth and originality of his thinking, it is very difficult to understand Wittgenstein's ideas and even more difficult t incorporate them into one's own thinking. At the same time the magic of his personality and style was most inviting and persuasive. to learn from Wittgenstein without coming to adopt his forms of expression and catchwords and even to imitate his tone of voice, his mien and gestures was almost impossible.

There is a suggestion here that Wittgenstein would never have fitted in as the leader of a large group of students and researchers. Although he did have students who went on produce important work, yet remain true to his way of thinking, Wittgenstein always seemed an isolated figure. He seemed to understand the reasons for this when he wrote:-

Am I the only one who cannot found a school or can a philosopher never do this? I cannot found a school because I do not really want to be imitated. Not at any rate by those who publish articles in philosophy journals.

Wittgenstein remained at Cambridge until he resigned in 1947 except for the period of World War II during which he worked as a hospital porter in Guy's Hospital in London. He also spent time working as a laboratory assistant in the Royal Victoria Infirmary before returning to his duties at Cambridge in 1944. After three years back at Cambridge he retired and moved to an isolated cottage on the west coast of Ireland. His health deteriorated and in 1949 cancer was diagnosed. Wittgenstein did not seem unhappy at the diagnosis since he said that he did not wish to live any longer. He continued to work on his ideas until a few days before his death, the power and depth of his intellect being undiminished by illness.

McGinn, in [12], gives a fair estimate of Wittgenstein:-

The power and originality of his thought show a unique philosophical mind and many would be happy to call him a genius.

Wittgenstein was never happy with his own writings and as a result only the one major work, the Tractatus, was published during his life. A wealth of material from his lectures and notes has subsequently been published. That his ideas are found difficult is something that he was well aware of and he felt that in some way he did not fit into the world in which he lived. Let us end with a quote from his own writing about why ideas are found difficult:-

Why is philosophy so complicated? It ought to be entirely simple. Philosophy unties the knots in our thinking that we have, in a senseless way, put there. To do this it must make movements that are just as complicated as these knots. Although the result of philosophy is simple, its method cannot be if it is to succeed. The complexity of philosophy is not a complexity of its subject matter, but of our knotted understanding.