On the Trail to Wittgenstein's Hut: The Historical Background of the Tractatus Logico-philosphicus

by Oxaal,Ivar

• ISBN13: 9781412814249
• ISBN10: 1412814243
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the roots of his monumental Tractatusare explored in this imaginative work. Oxaal picks up on themes developed in an earlier work of his on Jews, Anti-Semitism and Culture in Vienna, adding to it special issues concerning Wittgenstein's experiences in Norway in 1913-14, where he worked on ideas that were completed during the war. Oxaal situates the great philosopher in time, place, and attitude, showing how his personal background came to bear on the writing of the Tractatus. Wittengenstein has often been criticized for traces of solipsism and even mysticism, and Oxaal also examines these issues in a volume that integrates ethnography, nationality, and cultural studies.Oxaal sheds new light on the theme of Wittgenstein's Jewishness, and develops a new appreciation of the Wittgenstein family and Wittgenstein's better-known years in Vienna. The author is unsparing in his observations about racism and pessimism in Berlin and Great Britian during the period in which Wittgenstein worked and studied at Cambridge.The writing of the Tractatusspanned the First World War. In the period immediately after its completion, Wittgenstein found himself in The Hague where he was in discussions and disputes with Bertrand Russell. Oxaal covers these problems sensitively and with an appreciation of ambiguities in the life of a great philosopher and the confusions caused by a post-war change in fortunes - personal and familial. This work of an eminent social scientist and historian may not be the final statement on Wittgenstein, but it most certainly must be considered in any serious assessments of an iconic figure of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Prologue: It Was the Year of the Titanic (1912)	p. 1
Anti-Semitism in the German Lands
The Origins of the Wittgensteins	p. 17
Vienna: A City of Dreams	p. 31
Ludwig in the Prussian Kaiserstadt	p. 45
Manchester to Trinity College, Cambridge
Racisms and Pessimism in the British Empire	p. 59
Mysticism in Trinity	p. 75
Norway (1913-14) and at the End of the War
The German Kaiser and Wittgenstein in Norway	p. 93
Daniel Deronda, in Brand Country, and on the Eastern Front	p. 105
On the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
In The Hague (1919)	p. 119
On The Origin of the Title	p. 129
Postscript	p. 145
Appendixes	p. 147
Acknowledgments	p. 155
Notes	p. 157
Bibliography	p. 183
Index	p. 197
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