The points made in Philosophical Investigations—namely that a lot of philosophical problems come down to confusions about language—seems to be interesting and correct to me: but really, did no one before Wittgenstein think about this? I mean, if I read Russell, it seems that he had a similar brand of clear thinking going on. I’m sure various strains of Traditional Rationality were around much before Wittgenstein.
Or is it only because I’m living in the post-Wittgenstein world that I feel that this is relatively obvious?
However that doesn’t answer Stabilizer’s curiosity about which ideas were really brought by him, how his ideas about confusions on language compare to those of Russel, etc. I’m also interested in knowing :)
(I’ve read the Philosophical Investigations but not Russel, and don’t have a clear idea of the history of ideas in that domain)
To those knowledgeable in philosophy, can someone please explain why Wittgenstein is such a big deal? I skimmed the Wikipedia articles on Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.
I have no idea what’s going on in Tractatus.
The points made in Philosophical Investigations—namely that a lot of philosophical problems come down to confusions about language—seems to be interesting and correct to me: but really, did no one before Wittgenstein think about this? I mean, if I read Russell, it seems that he had a similar brand of clear thinking going on. I’m sure various strains of Traditional Rationality were around much before Wittgenstein.
Or is it only because I’m living in the post-Wittgenstein world that I feel that this is relatively obvious?
Personally I was impressed by http://www.geocities.jp/mickindex/wittgenstein/witt_lec_et_en.html
Indeed, it is pretty good—and not obvious.
However that doesn’t answer Stabilizer’s curiosity about which ideas were really brought by him, how his ideas about confusions on language compare to those of Russel, etc. I’m also interested in knowing :)
(I’ve read the Philosophical Investigations but not Russel, and don’t have a clear idea of the history of ideas in that domain)