Knowra Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher whose work transformed debates about logic, language, meaning, and the limits of philosophical explanation.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus : Wittgenstein’s early book argues that propositions picture possible facts and that meaningful language has logical form. This book develops the early theory of language that made his reputation.
Meaning as use : The view that a word’s meaning is determined by how it functions within linguistic practices. This slogan captures a central shift in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy.
Bertrand Russell : A British philosopher and logician who helped found analytic philosophy and wrote extensively on logic, language, and mathematics. Russell encouraged Wittgenstein’s early work and became its influential interpreter.
Early Wittgenstein : The phase of Wittgenstein’s philosophy associated chiefly with the Tractatus and its account of logical representation. It presents the systematic picture theory that his later work moves away from.
Analytic philosophy : A philosophical tradition emphasizing clarity, argument, and analysis of language, logic, and concepts. Wittgenstein’s changing methods became major reference points within this tradition.
Philosophical Investigations : Wittgenstein’s posthumously published work examines meaning through language use, rule-following, and forms of life. This later work replaces the search for one logical essence with close attention to varied practices.
Rule-following : The problem of explaining how a rule can determine its correct application across particular cases. Wittgenstein argues that rule-following depends on shared practices, not private interpretation alone.
Gottlob Frege : A German logician and philosopher whose work on logic and the foundations of arithmetic shaped modern analytic philosophy. Frege’s logical innovations formed part of the intellectual background Wittgenstein entered.
Later Wittgenstein : The phase of Wittgenstein’s philosophy associated chiefly with Philosophical Investigations and meaning as use. It replaces the early search for a single logical structure with attention to diverse language-games.
Philosophy of language : The branch of philosophy that studies meaning, reference, truth, and the relation between language and reality. His accounts of logical representation and meaning as use shaped its central debates.
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