WITTGENSTEIN - BACKGROUND

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>WITTGENSTEIN</FONT><BR> THE LOGICIAN</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Background</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>A DIVIDED CAREER</B> </FONT><P> <CENTER><IMG SRC="2202a.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="201" ALT="WITTGENSTEIN DOUBLE PORTRAIT"></CENTER><P> Wittgenstein was born into a wealthy Viennese family, but his career as a philosopher was based in Cambridge where he initially went to study with <A HREF="../t06/t06f24.html" TARGET="_top">Bertrand Russell</A>. His first major work, the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", was written in a prisoner of war camp, and based on notes that he made while serving as a soldier in World War 1. He sent a copy to Russell, but did not immediately return to Cambridge himself.<P> Abandoning philosophy entirely, he worked as an elementary school teacher and then as a gardener in a monastery. He returned to Cambridge after a prolonged absence. Although scholars focus on the differences between his earlier and later work, his preoccupations remained the same - philosophical problems and their relation to language.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>ENGINEER AND DESIGNER</B></FONT><BR> From the very earliest age, Wittgenstein demonstrated a passion to understand how the parts of things worked to make a functioning whole. His first field of study was, not philosophy, but engineering. As a child, he made a working model of a sewing machine, using the family dressmaker's machine as a prototype. He designed and built a house for his sister in which the beauty of the whole was the product of his obsession with precise measurement and juxtaposition of objects. His approach to the problems of philosophy and language showed the same preoccupation with the relation of parts to the whole. How do words and thoughts combine to create meaning? <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>