Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ordinary Language Philosopher
Austria and Britain, 1889-1951
Born into a hugely wealthy Austrian family, Ludwig Wittgenstein set off at an early age to revolutionize modern philosophy by examining its most central component: our language. His life is considered in three distinct periods, each of which correspond to his philosophical standing at the time.
His early work, part of what is called his Tractarian period, is summed up in his book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). This was an attempt to reconcile the positions of Frege's apriorism and Russell's atomism in one work. An accomplished logician, Wittgenstein sought to find the true logic behind our misunderstood language, hence his development of Ordinary Language Philosophy. By recourse to the picture theory of meaning, he ended up concluding with the thought that Tractatus was just a tool to attain an understanding of the idea that only statements of natural sciences are meaningful. He concluded that "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."
His next period was one of inactivity. He met with the influential Vienna Circle during the early 30s, and he was soon convinced of a flaw in his Tractatus, which induced him to seek to remedy it. The mid 1930s brought a renewed interest in the philosophy of mathmatics. By 1936 he had begun work on his Philosophical Investigations, which was finally printed in 1953, after he gave up working on it in 1948. PI was an attempt to `dissolve away' any inconsitencies and philosophical puzzles found in our language. He attempted to adjust his views as set out in Tractatus, and introduced a number of new ideas, including the private language argument. This seeks to establish that the inner states processes of the mind do not suffice for an adequate of our grasp of norms and of meanings. Words, for Wittgenstein only have meaning in the context of shared usage, which provides public criteria for their correct application.
Wittgenstein's later writings on epistemology are published in a volume called On Certainty. This contains his writings from 1948 through the time of his death in 1951.