Word Book
Description
Wittgenstein's dictionary for children: a rare and intriguing addition to the philosopher's corpus, in English for the first time
"I had never thought the dictionaries would be so frightfully expensive. I think, if I live long enough, I will produce a small dictionary for elementary schools. It appears to me to be an urgent need." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
In 1925, Ludwig Wittgenstein, arguably one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, wrote a dictionary for elementary school children. His Wörterbuch für Volksschulen (Dictionary for Elementary Schools) was designed to meet what he considered an urgent need: to help his students learn to spell. Wittgenstein began teaching kids in rural Austria in 1920 after abandoning his life and work at Cambridge University. During this time there were only two dictionaries available. But one was too expensive for his students, and the other was too small and badly put together. So Wittgenstein decided to write one. Word Book is the first-ever English translation of Wörterbuch. This publication aims to encourage and reinvigorate interest in one of the greatest modern philosophers by introducing this gem of a work to a wider audience. Word Book also explores how Wörterbuch portends Wittgenstein's radical reinvention of his own philosophy and the enduring influence his thinking holds over how art, culture and language are understood. Word Book is translated by writer and art historian Bettina Funcke, with a critical introduction by scholar Désirée Weber, and accompanied with art by Paul Chan. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an Austrian-born British philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. He played a decisive if controversial role in 20th-century analytic philosophy, and his work continues to influence fields as diverse as logic and language, perception and intention, ethics and religion, aesthetics and culture.Product Details
Price
$39.95
$36.75
Publisher
Badlands Unlimited
Publish Date
November 03, 2020
Pages
96
Dimensions
5.7 X 8.2 X 0.6 inches | 0.6 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781943263240
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 - 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.[12] From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge.[13] During his lifetime he published just one slim book (the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1921), one article (Some Remarks on Logical Form, 1929), one book review and a children's dictionary.[14][15] His voluminous manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. Philosophical Investigations appeared as a book in 1953. His teacher, Bertrand Russell, described Wittgenstein as perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived; passionate, profound, intense, and dominating.[16] Born in Vienna into one of Europe's richest families, he inherited a fortune from his father in 1913. He initially made some donations to artists and writers, and then, in a period of severe personal depression after the First World War, he gave away his entire fortune to his brothers and sisters.[17][18] Three of his four brothers committed suicide, which Wittgenstein had also contemplated. He left academia several times-serving as an officer on the front line during World War I, where he was decorated a number of times for his courage; teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages where he encountered controversy for hitting children when they made mistakes in mathematics; and working as a hospital porter during World War II in London, where he told patients not to take the drugs they were prescribed while largely managing to keep secret the fact that he was one of the world's most famous philosophers. His philosophy is often divided into an early period, exemplified by the Tractatus, and a later period, articulated in the Philosophical Investigations.[19] Early Wittgenstein was concerned with the logical relationship between propositions and the world and he believed that by providing an account of the logic underlying this relationship, he had solved all philosophical problems. Late Wittgenstein, however, rejected many of the assumptions of the Tractatus, arguing that the meaning of words is best understood as their use within a given language-game.[20] A survey among American university and college teachers ranked the Investigations as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy, standing out as the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations.The Investigations also ranked 54th on a list of most influential twentieth-century works in cognitive science prepared by the University of Minnesota's Center for Cognitive Sciences.[21] However, in the words of his friend Georg Henrik von Wright, he believed that his ideas were generally misunderstood and distorted even by those who professed to be his disciples. He doubted he would be better understood in the future. He once said he felt as though he was writing for people who would think in a different way, breathe a different air of life, from that of present-day men