LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: THE TRACTATUS ODYSSEY

100 Years Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“The work is strictly philosophical and, at the same time, literary, but there is no babbling in it.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s path to his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus can rightly be termed an odyssey. Both in the temporal and spatial sense, as well as Wittgenstein’s intellectual development in the course of writing it, the Tractatus contains all the associations of an exciting, improbable journey.

1889 26 April Born in Vienna, in the family villa in Neuwaldegg

1912 Cambridge Trinity College, as Undergraduate, meeting with Bertrand Russell

Visit to Frege in Jena

1914 August Volunteers for service in the Austrian army

Arrival in Cracow, assigned to one of the Vistula ships “for the operation of a spotlight”.

1915 August Transfer to Sokal to artillery workshop train no. 1

1916 October Officer training in Olomouc, meets Paul Engelmann

1917 January Return to the front in Bukowina

1918 August Completion of the Tractatus in Austria, during a home leave

November Taken Prisoner of War in Italy, Cassino

1919 August back to Vienna. Distributes his fortune to his siblings

September Starts training for an elementary school teacher

1920-1926 Elementary school teacher in villages in Lower Austria

1921 November Logical-Philosophical Treatise appears in the “Annals of Natural Philosophy”

1922 November Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is published in English-German version

A WITTGENSTEIN INITIATIVE PROJECT

Curated by Radmila Schweitzer

All content is protected by copyright

Dominik Niebauer, GutWien, www.gut-wien.at

Co-operation Partners:

Trinity College, Cambridge

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

The University of Bergen

Forschungsinstitut Brenner-Archiv der Universität Innsbruck

Wittgenstein Foundation Skjolden

Austrian State Archive

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

University of Iowa

Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Wien 3 Kundmanngasse

Wittgenstein 1908 – 1912

Wittgenstein moved to Manchester in May 1908, after three semesters studying mechanical engineering

Wittgenstein 1913 – 1914

Wittgenstein designed the house in the spring of 1914, for his next stay in Skjolden. In the meantime, World War I…

Wittgenstein 1914 and 1915

God be with me!
Wartime Diaries

Wittgenstein 1918 and 1919

I‘ve written a book called „Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung“ containing all my work of the last 6 years.

Wittgenstein 1920 to 1922

… My work consists of two parts: of the one which is here, and of everything which I have not written. And precisely this second
part is the important one.

Wittgenstein Tractatus

The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus exerted a great influence on various philosophical schools, but especially on the Vienna Circle. Among the members of this circle were