[Fwd: Re: book: wittgenstein's poker]

[Ken Hanly]

Comments prior to sections: cheers, Ken Hanly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: book: wittgenstein's poker]
COMMENT:
Certainly philosophers such as Austin were not at all intimidated either.
Wittgenstein was quite aware of the fact that he tended to overwhelm his
students and it certainly bothered him. Apparently that is why he liked to
have Moore in his classes since he knew Moore was immune.
>
> Almost no philosopher in England in those days
> >dared to
> >challenge Wittgenstein's authority, and even people who agreed
> >wholeheartedly with Popper acted as though they were Wittgenstein's
> >followers. It was a time of opinion-terror without parallel.
>
> Utter rubbish. W had charisma and prestige as well as a genius, but he was
> no academic macher; the aura just clung to him. And Moore, the other
> heavyweight at Cambridge, could not be intimidated bya nyone or anything.
>>
> >
COMMENT
Well, the Tractatus was in the empiricist tradition and combined that with
the propositional logic developed by Russell and Whitehead among others.
But it is hardly any inheritance of Russell. The Tractatus influenced
Russell as I understand the matter. Only after W. repudiated key assumptions
of the Tractatus did Russell turn against W. Before that they had rather
similar outlooks, although Russell even then no doubt misunderstood the
Tractatus. Of course Russell wrote the Preface to the Tractatus, a Preface
that irritated W. no end! Russell was just too flippant and easy-going about
philosophy for W.

    Sometimes Wittgenstein thought Russell a fool, but he also thought
himself a fool a lot of the time as well and said as much. Early on he
sought Russell's advice as to whether he should pursue philosophy. He did
seem to admitre some philosophers such as Moore - but Moore upset him on
occasaion as well, and he also seemed to be impressed by Sraffa.


> >        > >
>
> >             "I don't accept that. Popper and Wittgenstein were rivals.
> >They
> >fought for the inheritance of Bertrand Russell."
>
> Nonsense. W thought Russell a fool. Couse he thought everyone a fool.
>
> jks
>
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