“His disposition is that of an artist, intuitive and moody. Most importantly, Wittgenstein’s whole character was artistic. He also lectured primarily using the power of inspiration, standing in the lecture hall or else pacing until a thought came to him, and then announcing it to enraptured onlookers. At one point he shocked the boring old gits of the Vienna Circle of philosophers by recommending they read Heidegger and Kierkegaard. Instead, he approached philosophy creatively. One thing making Wittgenstein interesting is that he was not a scientist and did not see philosophy as scientific.

Given that the lives of most philosophers are little more interesting than that of Immanuel Kant, who never left his province, Wittgenstein’s life of action is rather exciting. He spends time in Norway and as a soldier, works as a teacher and gardener, goes back to Cambridge to teach, helps out in the Second World War behind the scenes, and finally dies. Our hero moves to England for his studies, meets a number of philosophers including Bertrand Russell who all eventually come to consider him a genius. I counted at least five suicides in the first chapter of Monk’s book alone – three of them Wittgenstein’s brothers. But the Vienna he was born into, at the tail end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s life, was not a happy place producing happy people. Wittgenstein was born in Vienna to one of the richest of all Austrian families and had an extremely privileged upbringing. Being such a unique personality, Wittgenstein provides plenty of all three.

Rather than summarise a summary of Wittgenstein’s thoughts, I thought I’d note here the parts of his life that struck me as particularly entertaining, saddening, or interesting. This approach works because, for me at least, the parts of Wittgenstein’s thought that are most interesting are precisely those that came from his life – such as the way the mystical sections of the Tractatus came from Wittgenstein’s experience in the First World War. Though Monk’s biography gave me some sense of Wittgenstein’s thoughts, the focus here was more on his life. Wittgenstein’s thoughts on language are worth knowing about, sure, but certainly not near the top of the pile of philosophies I want to have a grasp of. I did not gallop through Ray Monk’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius because I wanted to know about Wittgenstein’s philosophy – I did it because I wanted to know about the man. What is attractive about Ludwig Wittgenstein is that he was a real genius.

Wittgenstein genius