Topic > Wittgenstein Essay - 552

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) developed his interest in philosophy while studying aeronautical engineering at the University of Manchester. This interest was in the philosophy of pure mathematics and eventually led him to Gottlob Frege, who advised him to go to Cambridge and study with Bertand Russell, in 1911 (Biletzki & Matar, 2011). This was the beginning of Wittgenstein's early philosophy, which lasted from 1911 to 1921. He joined the Austrian army at the start of World War I and was eventually taken prisoner in 1917. During his time in a prison camp, wrote his first major work, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Frege, Russell, and Moore and their philosophies regarding meaning, truth, and knowledge ultimately influenced Wittgenstein's early thinking and what his philosophy was about. His first philosophy deals with creating theories and definitions of these concepts to solve problems and clarify what we are really talking about (Fitzpatrick, 2014). After publishing this work, which he believed solved all philosophical problems, he left philosophy and dabbled in...