Obituary: Ludwig Wittgenstein Author(S): Bertrand Russell Reviewed Work(S): Source: Mind, New Series, Vol

Mind Association

Obituary: Ludwig Wittgenstein Author(s): Bertrand Russell Reviewed work(s): Source: Mind, New Series, Vol. 60, No. 239 (Jul., 1951), pp. 297-298 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2251317 . Accessed: 27/10/2012 14:00

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http://www.jstor.org VOL. LX. No. 239.] [July,1951 M IND A QUARTERLY REVIEW

OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

I.-OBITUARY

THE Editorregrets to announcethe death of Ludwig Wittgensteinon 29 April,1951, at Cambridge.

II.-LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

By BERTRANDRUSSELL

WHEN I made the acquaintance of Wittgenstein,be told me that he had been intendingto become an engineer,and with that end in view had gone to Manchester. In the course of his studies in engineeringhe had become interestedin mathe- matics, and in the courseof his studiesin mathematicshe had become interestedin the principlesof mathematics. He asked people at Manchester(so he told me) whetherthere was such a subject, and whetheranyone worked at it. They told him that therewas such a subject and that be could findout more about it by comingto me at Cambridge,which he accordingly *did. Quite at firstI was in doubt as to whetherhe was a man of geniusor a crank,but I verysoon decidedin favourof the former alternative. Some of his earlyviews made the decisiondifficult. He maintained,for example, at one time that all existential propositionsare meaningless. This was in a lectureroom, and I invitedhim to considerthe proposition: " Thereis no hippo- potamus in thisroom at present". Whenhe refusedto believe this, I looked underall the desks withoutfinding one; but he remainedunconvinced. 20 297 298 BERTRAND RUSSELL: WITTGENSTEIN He made veryrapid progressin mathematicallogic, and soon knewall that I had to teach. He did not, I think,know Frege personallyat that time, but he read him and greatlyadmired him. I naturallylost sight of him duringthe 1914-18 war, but I got a letterfrom him soon afterthe armistice,written from Monte Casino. He told me that he had been taken prisoner, but fortunatelywith his manuscript,which was the Tractatus. I pulled stringsto get him releasedby the ItaliarnGoverDnent, and we met at the Hague, where we discussed the Tractatus. line by line. I cannot say very much about his opinions before 1914, as thev werein a state of formationand flux. He was thinking very intenselyand -veryfruitfully, but was not yet arriving at anythingvery definite. While I was still doubtfulas to his ability, I asked G. E. Moore for his opinion. Moore replied, " I thinkvery well ofhim indeed ". WhenI enquiredthe reason for his opinion,he said that it was because Wittgensteinwas the onlyman who lookedpuzzled at his lectures. Gettingto know Wittgensteinwas one of the most exciting intellectualadventures of my life. In later years therewas a lack of intellectualsympathy between us, but in early years I was as willingto learnfrom him as he fromme. His thought had an almostincredible degree of passionatelyintense penetra- tion, to whichI gave whole-heartedadmiration. He was in the days before,1914 concernedalmost solely with logic. During or perhaps just before,the firstwar, he changed his outlook and became more or less of a mystic,as may be seen here ind there in the Tractatus. He had been dogmaticallyanti-Christian, but in this respect he changed completely. The only thing he ever told me about this was that once in a village in Galicia duringthe war he found a bookshopcontaining only one book, whichwas Tolstoyon the Gospels. He bought the book, and, accordingto him, it in- fluencedhim profoundly. Of the developmentof his opinions after1919 I cannot speak.

The Editorhopes to publishin the nextissue Memoirsby Prof. G. E. Moore,J. T. Wisdomand F. Waismanncovering the other periodsof LudwigWittgenstein's life.