Wittgenstein

[ vit-guhn-shtahyn, -stahyn ]

noun

1. Lud·wig (Jo·sef Jo·hann) [loot, -vi, kh, , yoh, -zef , yoh, -hahn, lood, -], 1889–1951, Austrian philosopher.

Wittgenstein

/ -ˌstaɪn; ˈvɪtɡənˌʃtaɪn /

noun

1. WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann18891951MBritishAustrianPHILOSOPHY: philosopher Ludwig Josef Johann (ˈluːtvɪç ˈjoːzɛf joˈhan). 1889–1951, British philosopher, born in Austria. After studying with Bertrand Russell, he wrote the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), which explores the relationship of language to the world. He was a major influence on logical positivism but later repudiated this, and in Philosophical Investigations (1953) he argues that philosophical problems arise from insufficient attention to the variety of natural language use

Other Words From

• Wittgen·steini·an adjective noun

Example Sentences

The subjects being communicated by animals may be unlike anything humans might expect or comprehend, which the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once summed up by arguing, “If a lion could speak, we would not understand him.”

From Salon

A District Court colleague, Judge Manish Shah, remarked in an email that Judge Zagel “could quote Ludwig Wittgenstein and Groucho Marx with an easy charm.”

From New York Times

Wittgenstein, on a dais, would begin to stammer.

From New York Times

According to Wittgenstein, “whereof we cannot speak, thereof must we be silent,” and though “Saint Omer” is a film saturated in discourse, its silences are where its deepest insight resides.

From New York Times

She is highly intelligent and educated and she is going to take an interest in Wittgenstein, rather than a 20th century African philosopher which her professor criticizes her for.

From Salon