Prototractatus: An Early Version of Tractatus Logico-philosophicus

by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Brian McGuinness (editor/translator), Georg Henrik von Wright (editor)

English, German

Genres: Philosophy

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Ph.D., Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1929) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

Described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating", he helped inspire two of the twentieth century's principal philosophical movements: the Vienna Circle and Oxford ordinary language philosophy. According to an end of the century poll, professional philosophers in Canada and the U.S. rank both his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations among the top five most important books in twentieth-century philosophy, the latter standing out as "...the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations". Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences, yet there are widely diverging interpretations of his thought.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the first jobs I had as a teaching assistant in philosophy at Loyola University Chicago was to prepare Bill Ellos' doctoral dissertation for publication. The typescript of this paper was many hundreds of pages, the text being basically a very detailed overview of everything Ludwig Wittgenstein had written or had been reported to have said, thematically arranged. I knew next to nothing about the philosopher and, so, had to read this same material myself in order to competently edit the manuscript.

[Ben Priest · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's a little like Jazz. It's what he doesn't say that makes it.