Wittgenstein Revisited 2026

 

Wittgentstein, Ludwig (1889-1951)

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Culture and Value. Translated by Peter Winch. University of Chicago Press, 1980, index, 94 pages. VSCPL.

Wittgenstein's Artillery: Philosophy as Poetry. By James C. Klagge. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA., 2021, 258 pages, index, bibliography, notes. VSCPL.

suppose somebody says
suppose one wanted to ask
people will say
you may answer
someone says to me

you may say
suppose it were asked
one might ask
it will be said
suppose he might say

Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosoph in the Age of Airplances. By Anthony Gottlieb. Yale University, 2025, index, 209 pages. VSCPL.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. Third Edition. Macmillan, 1958, 1968, index, 250 pages, VSCPL.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Blue and Brown Books. Preliminary Studies for the 'Philosophical Investigations. Harper Torchbooks, 1958, 1965, 185 pages. VSCPL.

Zettel. By Ludwig Wittgenstein. Edited by G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. University of California Press, 1967, 1970, 124 pages. VSCPL.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. By Ludwig Wittgenstein. (1921) Translation by D. F. Pears and B.F. McGuinness. London, Routledge, 1961, 166 pages, index. Uses a numerical system for organizing his brief Remarks. VSCPL.

An Introduction to Wittgenstein's Tractatus. By G. E. M. Anscombe. Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Hutchinson University Library, 1959, 1971, index, 179 pages. VSCPL.

Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief. By Ludwig Wittgenstein. Edited by Cyril Barrett, University of California, 1966, 72 pages. VSCPL.

How to Read Wittgenstein. By Ray Monk. Norton, 2005. VSCPL.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. By Ray Monk. Penguin, 1991, 704 pages. VSCPL.

"When we do philosophy
We should like to hypostatize
Feelings where there are none.
They serve to explain out thoughts to us.
'Here explanation of our thinking demands a feeling.
It is as if our conviction
Were simply consequent upon this requirement."

- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations # 598

[I purchased my first copy of Philosophical Investigations
in January of 1975. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe,
1953, 1968, the Third Edition. Wittgenstein's Remarks are
often brief, numbered, questioning, expounding,
challenging, wandering, wondering . . . . . ]

Wittgenstein. By Anthony Kenny. Harvard University, 1973, 240 pages, index. VSCPL.

Simply Wittgenstein. by James Klagge. Simply Charly, 2016.

Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy. By P.M.S. Hacker. Blackwell, 1996.

 

 

 

Which are More Numerous: The Living or the Dead?

"Alexander captured ten of the Gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death him who first made an incorrect answer, and then the rest, in an order determined in like manner; and he commanded one of them, the oldest, to be the judge in the contest. The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the living or the dead, said that the living were, since the dead no longer existed. The second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said: "That which up to this time man has not discovered." The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied: "Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly." The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied: "Day, by one day"; and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that hard questions must have hard answers. Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; "If," said the philosopher, "he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear." Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: "By doing something which a man cannot do"; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: "Life, since it supports so many ills." And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: "Until he does not regard death as better than life." So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. "Well, then," said Alexander, "thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict." "That cannot be, O King," said the judge, "unless thou falsely said that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst." These philosophers, then, he dismissed with gifts...
— Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great, "The Parallel Lives", 64-65. 


The Master once proposed a riddle: "What do the artist and the musician have in common with the mystic?"
Everyone gave up.
"The realization that the finest speech does not come from the tongue," said the Master.

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