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In the shadow of Goethe: Wittgenstein's intellectual project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2002

BRIAN MCGUINNESS
BRIAN MCGUINNESS
Affiliation:
via di Montechiaro 24, 53010 Pianella, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) had considerable influence on the ‘modern’ world but did not consider himself part of it. His search for a way of thinking, to give a deeper understanding than the science of his day, has considerable analogies with that of Goethe. He was less sanguine than Goethe about the possibility of a renewal of culture in his own day but his philosophical work, in its stress on restraint and concreteness, is permeated by the ethical ideals that he attempted to realize in his life and that of his friends. He also shows some kinship with Goethe's non-theistic mysticism. His philosophical work is a guide that, perhaps rightly, requires readers to find the answer for themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 447 - 457
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2002

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Footnotes

These thoughts were developed in the autumn of 2001, when I was a guest of the Rector, H. Wesseling, at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study at Wassenaar, and were published in part in the NIAS Newsletter.