Wittgenstein Essay

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Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) developed his interest in philosophy while studying aeronautical engineering at Manchester University. This interest was in the philosophy of pure mathematics and ultimately 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 inception of Wittgenstein’s early philosophy, which lasted from 1911 – 1921. He joined the Austrian army at the start of World War I and was eventually taken captive in 1917. During his time in captivity at a prison camp, he wrote his first important 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 dealt with. His early philosophy deals with creating theories and definitions of these concepts to solve problems and to clarify what we are really talking about (Fitzpatrick, 2014).
After publishing this work, which he believed to solve all philosophical problems, he left philosophy and dabbled i...

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