WITTGENSTEIN - INFLUENCES

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B>WITTGENSTEIN<BR> THE LOGICIAN</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Influences</B></FONT><P> Wittgenstein went to Cambridge because of his admiration for the work of <A HREF="../t06/t06f24.html" TARGET="_top">Bertrand Russell</A>.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>LOGICAL POSITIVISM</B></FONT><BR> At both stages of his career, Wittgenstein inspired a devoted group of followers. The only work published during his lifetime, the "Tractatus", was adopted by a group known as the Vienna Circle. Never himself part of this group, Wittgenstein was, at one stage, in friendly contact with its members who founded a system of logical <A HREF="../t03/g039.html" TARGET="_top">positivism</A> based on the Tractatus. By the time of his return to Cambridge, Wittgenstein had repudiated the "Tractatus", and was strongly critical of its methodology, but its offspring had gathered its own momentum. The Vienna Circle, a group of scholars of the University of Vienna, adopted Wittgenstein's final proposition in the Tractatus as a foundation for a system of thought called logical positivism. "Whereof one cannot speak, one must be silent" was the basis for their "verification principle". Only empirically verifiable statements were meaningful. Propositions must be tested against either sense data or grammatical structure. Only the empirically verifiable propositions of science and the formal propositions of mathematics and logic are sources of truth. All philosophical questions of <A HREF="../t03/g032.html" TARGET="_top">metaphysics</A>, aesthetics, religion and <A HREF="../t03/g017.html" TARGET="_top">ethics</A> are meaningless. Philosophy can only clarify our language through logical analysis of statements.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>LECTURES</B></FONT><BR> His new ideas and approach to philosophy were shared only with a small group of students at Cambridge who attended his lectures. These became his second group of devotees. Wittgenstein abandoned the lecture hall and was given permission to deliver his lectures from his own room. Students, and often other lecturers, would sit on chairs, including deckchairs, or on the floor, in cramped conditions, to hear him speak. One student describes it thus: "He had no manuscript or notes. He <B>thought</B> before the class. The impression was one of tremendous concentration. The exposition usually led to a question, to which the audience were supposed to suggest an answer. The answers in turn became starting points for new thoughts leading to new questions." Student notes from such lectures were later published by the students themselves, such was their admiration for his ideas.<P> (Lectures of 1933-35 published in The Blue Book and The Brown Book.) <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>