Wittgenstein and Cambridge Family Resemblances

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Wittgenstein and Cambridge Family Resemblances An Exhibition at Clare Hall Cambridge 31 March to 4 May 2011 by Michael Nedo © 2011 supported by the AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM London Michael Nedo, Wittgenstein Archive Cambridge Exhibition and Catalogue in Cooperation with Andrea Baczynski, Photo-Artist, Vienna – Cambridge Philip Ball, PandIS, Cambridge University and Bruce Godfrey, Cambridge University Computing Service Print Room The Paolozzi Composites of Wittgenstein were donated by the artist to Michael Nedo, Director of the Wittgenstein Archive Cambridge Typeset in Baskerville and Gill Sans by Berthold
Ludwig Wittgenstein born in Vienna 26 April 1889 died in Cambridge 29 April 1951 In the autumn of 1911 Wittgenstein came to Cambridge, following the advice of Gottlob Frege, to study philosophy under Bertrand Russell. Before that, Wittgenstein had studied aeronautical engineering in Berlin and subsequently, on the advice of his father, in Manchester, where he invented an aeroplane engine for which he received a patent – an engine still in use today. But his main interests had always been philosophical: he had intended to study physics – in particular its epistemological aspects – under Ludwig Boltzmann in Vienna, but Boltzmann committed suicide in 1906, when Wittgenstein was leaving school. In February 1912 Wittgenstein became an undergraduate at Trinity College, later an advanced student. He studied logic and the foundations of mathematics under Bertrand Russell and psychology under G.E. Moore; he became friends with Russell, John Maynard Keynes and G.H. Hardy and with David Pinsent, a mathematics student in Trinity. It was not long before the student Wittgenstein became the teacher of his teachers and they developed great expectations regarding his work. Thus Russell mentioned in 1912 to Wittgenstein’s sister Hermine: “ We expect the next big step in philosophy to be taken by your brother.” and later in Mind: “Getting to know Wittgenstein was one of the most exciting intellectual adventures of my life.” In collaboration with Moore, Wittgenstein reformed the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, establishing rules that still apply today. In October 1913 Wittgenstein moved to Norway – to Skjolden, a small village north-east of Bergen – to concentrate on his work. There, before his 25 th birthday, he made groundbreaking discoveries in logic, for instance a new symbolism for ‘truthfunctions’, which explains logical truth as ‘tautologies’. At the beginning of the Great War Wittgenstein joined the Austrian army. While on leave from the front, in August 1918, he finished his first book, the Logisch- Philosophische Abhandlung, published in Germany in 1921 and in London in 1922 in a bilingual edition under the title of the English translation Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Wittgenstein was convinced that with the completion of his book he had exhausted his means to do philosophy. After the war he found a new vocation: he qualified as a teacher and taught in small villages in Lower Austria. Frank Ramsey, who translated his book into English visited Wittgenstein and together with Keynes, tried to persuade him to return to Cambridge and to philosophy – but Wittgenstein remained in Austria. From 1926 he was building a house for his sister Margarethe Stoneborough, which he completed in the autumn of 1928. On the 18 th of January 1929 Wittgenstein was back in Cambridge. On 2 nd February he started work on his first manuscript volume, and on 20 th January of the following year he started teaching. Wittgenstein’s election to a research fellowship of Trinity College was based on a summary of his work (published posthumously as Philosophical Remarks), evaluated by the Trinity mathematicians Hardy and Littlewood, and by Russell, who reported to the College Council: “The theories contained in the work of Wittgenstein are novel, very original and indubitably important. Whether they are true, I do not know. As a logician who likes simplicity, I should wish to think that they are not […]” During the summer of 1930 Wittgenstein started working on a publication of his new ideas. He failed with his first attempt, the so-called ‘Big Typescript’, as he found his thoughts distorted and his thinking paralysed by the linear discourse required by a traditional book. His second attempt was an organic, multidimensional representation of his work, which he described in August 1938 in a preface to the book: 1 2 3
Page 1: Wittgenstein and Cambridge Family R
Page 5: and as practically all of Wittgenst
Page 8 and 9: Russell to Wittgenstein’s mother
Page 11 and 12: G.E. Moore to F.A. Hayek [At] the b
Page 13: Wittgenstein to O.K. Bouwsma during
Page 16 and 17: Wittgenstein to Keynes, October/Nov
Page 19 and 20: Wittgenstein to Ramsey, Summer 1923
Page 21: It’s terrible when he says “Is
Page 24 and 25: philosophical genius of a different
Page 26 and 27: “But even if in such cases I cann
Page 28 and 29: espected, warned that the atom bomb
Page 30 and 31: sich immer fragen: Wird denn dieses
Page 32 and 33: Wittgenstein’s composite photogra

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