Else M. Barth properties in the individual).' To say that Maritain's book, Petite logique, was influential is an understatement. By 1933 it had been reprinted ten times. At his death in 1973 it was made c1ear that his Introduction influence on the very highest echelons of the Catholic church had been direct and monumental, the then Pope c1aiming him as his own philosophical inspiration. However, some time after completing (with A.N. Whitehead) the Principia mathematica, Russell, the most widely influential of the logical revisionists in the first part of the century, had abandoned What has happened to the science of fundamental logica I research and had left logic, to logic as an academie discipline the scene to a younger man, the Austrian and pursuit? Though the diagnoses do not Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is known that this coincide, many agree that something has was preceded by Wittgenstein's gone seriously wrong. Some blame the philosophy of logical truth as 'tautologi­ technique and goal of formalization, or of eal'. algebraization and 'model theory'. Some And the logic-politics combination blame the take-over by mathematicians as disappeared - for a long time. Post hoc, such. Others blame the period of logica I ergo propter hoc? I believe the explanation positivism, or a background in Protestant is more involved. A full explanation also or Jewish religion. Quite a few regard it as has to cover other eminent politically a purely psychological question, blaming oriented logicians. For example, why did those who are drawn to logic as a profes­ the impact of the brilliant logical analyses sion as lacking in ordinary linguistic of German idealism by the author of proficiency, or in social and com­ Progress and Regress in Ph ilosophy , the municative skills, and hence in cultural German philosopher-mathematician consciousness. Leonard Nelson, dwindle after their It was not always so. John Stuart Mill author's death in 1927?2 Why have Ger­ was a logician and apolitical philosopher, man logicians after the last war not taken even a politician. Bertrand Russell, whose up his work? It seems there must have godfather Mill was, was a logician, a been internal contra-political influences political writer, and a (many-sided) politi­ on the science of logic in addition to the cal activist, in his younger years all three a-political Wittgenstein. at the same time. In 1923 his logic is An answer to these questions would widely recognized as philosophically seem to require a systematical analysis of important and as threatening to the the avowed political thought of more categorial basis of much of European 'technical' philosophers, such as logicians. philosophy induding social and political Such investigations are only beginning to thought. For in that year the renowned emerge. Alan Ryan's political life of French philosopher Jacques Maritain Russe1l appeared only in 1988, launches an attack on wh at he calls the 'Logic of Relation', which he ascribes to, I Jacques Maritain, Petite logique (logique /or­ and blames on, 'Mr. Russell in particular', melle), Paris, 1923. and which stands in opposition to the 2 Leonard Nelson, Progress and Regress in 'Logic of Inherence' (of an individual, in a Philosophy: From Hume and Kant to Hegel and postulated generic carrier of essential Fries (trans\. from Werke, vo\. 7, 1962), properties, and of those Oxford, 1970; and ot her writings. Else M . Barth XI preceded in 1987 by Victor Farias' study wise. Logic is of no avail anywhere.4 The of Martin Heidegger. 1989 brought the similarities with Wittgenstein are striking. debate on the philosophy and political Polities of race: As Monk explains, thought of Paul de Man and intensified Ludwig Wittgenstein immediately was the one on Heidegger, which has recently and always remained very much in sym­ been enriched with yet another two pathy with Otto Weininger's anti-Jew, books. Ray Monk's recent life of anti-female, anti-Iogic book from 1903, Wittgenstein transeends the interest in which - 'its epistemology obvious non­ Wittgenstein as a single individual, dis­ sense, its psychology primitive, and its c10sing aspects of the philosophical ethical prescriptions odious' (Monk)­ development in Europe th at can be seen became famous thanks to August to bear on the chasm between political Strindberg's laudation. 5 On tyranny, see culture and academie logic. One of these Monk (1990), p. 353ff. Weininger's anti­ is the 'Genius-or-death'-disposition. Semitism is complemented, though to my Monk emphasizes Wittgenstein's knowledge not by any expression of anti­ assaults on Russell's philosophy and how Semitism, by equally odious expressions the latter feit professionally discouraged of unsparing cruelty in Brouwer's untrans­ by them. RusselI, on the other hand, was lated book from 1905 (which he remained shocked by Wittgenstein's professional forever proud of), as weil as in his corre­ narrowness and a-political attitude to life. spondence, finally by his stance and 'Wittgenstein's work on logic did nothing, behaviour during the German occupation apparently, to improve the rigour of his of the Netherlands in WW II: recom­ thought on political questions,.3 mending a 'Declaration of Loyalty' to the Another turn in the philosophy of logic occupant, Nazi Germany, for which he in this century was caused by the Dutch was for some months expelled from his (anti-Iogicist and) mathematician L.E.J. Amsterdam position as professor after the Brouwer, to wh om the 'logic' of knowl­ war. In the same year E.W. Beth was edge assessment was a matter of one­ appointed to a new chair as Professor of person subjectivism. Whereas the conse­ Logic and the Philosophy of the Exact quences of his views for mathematical proof Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. theory were made the object of thorough Polities of gender: In 1903 the young debate, their logico-political meaning and Otto Weininger writes: 'Woman is noth­ influence have been glossed over. A num­ ing, she is mere/y matter ... she exists only ber of data indicate that Brouwer should ... as an object.' In 1905 the young Bertus be added to Wittgenstein in any explana­ Brouwer writes: 'Man ought to avoid and tion of the decline of logic as a profession to neglect Woman; but the woman ought of cultural and political relevance. The to live in the male, regarding herself as comparison has several dimensions: being nothing.' - 'The burning of widows Logical semiotics: Real truth is self-evi­ is a holy ritual; but barbarous Western dent, Brouwer wrote in 1905. Intersubjec­ governments forbid them as barbarous.' tive understanding requires a type of In 1907 Bertie RusselI runs for Parliament enforced training th at is to be regarded as in the interest of women's suffrage. To the a negative phenomenon, intellectual later dismay of Ludwig Wittgenstein. produets of persons belonging to certain The philosophy of Genius: See classes of the population are to be excluded from serious consideration, the 4 L.EJ. Brouwer, Leven, kunst en mystiek , parties in a controversy do not have Delft, 1905. See pp. 16, 27, 38, 42,97, and rights or obligations, linguistic or other- passim . 5 QUo Weininger, Geschlecht und Character, 3 Ray Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein - The Duty Vienna, 1903; Eng\. trans\. Sex and Character, of Genius, London: Jonathan Cape, 1990, p. 72. 1906. Introduction XII Brouwer, op. cit., and later discussions of physician, or physicist, or mathematician, the book and its author. 'Wittgenstein's or as a philosopher, for instanee a pursuit of the ideal of true genius has had logician. Though any one of these alter­ large consequences in contemporary native choices of a profession for Dr. philosophy,' writes Stuart Hampshire, Faustus would probably have transcended reviewing Monk's book.6 Mann's descriptive powers, nothing in his It had been whispered before that famous picture of the European tragedy Wittgenstein approved of Otto Weininger, essentially hinges on Leverkühn's on both scores mentioned above, and also produets being musical compositions. The that later on he was much impressed by a philosopher Wittgenstein and the mathe­ talk by Brouwer. An analysis of the disap­ matician Brouwer both exemplify the pearance of political interest among attitude and standard th at is clearly logicians in terms of their philosophies, expressed by Mann's Or. Faustus: 'Wenn and of the connections between them, has ich vom Hören höre! sagte Adrian. Nach been lacking. Monk does everything that meiner Meinung genügt es völlig. wenn he can do to clarify matters as far as etwas einmal gehört worden ist, nämlich, Wittgenstein is concerned and the influen­ als der Komponist es erdachte. ,8 ces on and from Wittgenstein, taking Otto 'When I hear about hearing! ' said Weininger's statement 'Logic and ethics Adrian. 'In my opinion it is quite suf­ are fundamentally the same, they are no ficient when something has been heard more than duty to oneself as a caption once, namely at the moment when the for his own book. This is not the place to composer conceived it.' Confronted with complete his analysis and dispose of the this semiotics an affronted listener has lost question, but in an introduction to a book the game in advance. on logic and polities, given Monk's work What I should like to caB 'the and Brouwer's untranslated aphoristic philosophical Or. Faustus' is a cluster of early work (1905), something can and culturally induced attitudes with at least should be said. Monk is clearly ignorant these components: dédain towards inter­ of that book, and understandably so, for personal communication, be it verbal or in 1975 it was not (except for a couple of musical, and the position and demands of insignificant stanzas) translated and listeners; towards argumentation; towards included in Brouwer's Collected Work.7 polities; ego-centered semiotics; avid Yet that book is exceedingly illuminating, aspiration to an assessment of Self as and even more so when read in combina­ Genius.