David M’s Reviews > Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma > Status Update

'Ironically, it was Wittgenstein who was acclaimed for getting this point completely wrong. When the truth is well known, and thus has become platitudinous, originality and eclat can presumably be secured only by getting it all egregiously wrong, which is precisely what Wittgenstein did.' (lol; I love intellectual bitchiness; here Gellner really drives it home with his use of adverbs; adverbs are so bitchy)

'Ironically, it was Wittgenstein who was acclaimed for getting this point completely wrong. When the truth is well known, and thus has become platitudinous, originality and eclat can presumably be secured only by getting it all egregiously, which precisely what Wittgenstein did.' (Not necessarily endorsing this view of W but I did lol; Gellner's use of adverbs is what really drives home his intellectual bitchiness)

Basic premise of the Tractatus: There is no such thing as culture. To identify error with community and truth with isolated consciousness, this is the opening move of modern thought, and we are still living through the consequences. Wittgenstein, it seems, was wrong about everything, often so wrong a sociologist is required to explain his influence (this doesn't make W any less important a philosopher, however)