Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire

Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by bmj on Thursday September 23, 2021 @11:25AM (#28630564)

I read a lot of philosophy in my 20s, but I think only Marcus Aurelius and Wittgenstein actual made me into a better, happier person.

My advisor at university, a philosophy professor, said the same thing about Wittgenstein. During the initial part of his graduate studies, philosophy left him empty, and depressed. Discovering, and focusing on, Wittgenstein, changed his life.

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by jhickok on Thursday September 23, 2021 @11:37AM (#28630739)

Wittgenstein has a reputation for being a "therapeutic philosopher", in the same vein as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, etc.

There is a fantastic book that I recommend along these lines: https://www.amazon.com/American-Philosophy-Story-John-Kaag/d...

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by JBlue42 on Thursday September 23, 2021 @03:17PM (#28633875)

I also enjoyed Kaag's "Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are"

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by jhickok on Thursday September 23, 2021 @03:45PM (#28634278)

Agreed, I actually read that one first. I was bummed to find out that he recently divorced his second wife who he talks about so highly in both his books.

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by JBlue42 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @09:38PM (#28689380)

I had no idea. :(

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by erichahn on Thursday September 23, 2021 @05:45PM (#28635942)

Wittgenstein had this effect on me too. But not the Tractatus. What calmed me down was the Philosophical Investigations and Kripkes Naming and Necessity.

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Re:Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire by bmj on Friday September 24, 2021 @06:39AM (#28640673)

This was the case with my advisor as well. In his course on Wittgenstein, we read the Tractatus, but the focus was on The Philsophical Investigations as response to the Tractatus.

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