Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)

 

“If a person could not speak it, it was not real,” Wittgenstein

was famous for saying.

Wittgenstein was the Albert Einstein of Western philosophy.

As Einstein completely transformed physics,

Wittgenstein transformed philosophy. In fact, some scholars

argued that by introducing new paradigms and categories

for discussion, he ended philosophy as a viable discipline.

Like Martin Heidegger, he argued that reality was merely

language. If a person could not say it, then it was not real. In

other words, philosophy was irrelevant. Only language was

relevant. While Western philosophy purported to discuss

essential foundations of justice, reality, and ethics, these

were, according to Wittgenstein, false problems distracting

people from the real issues. Philosophy tried to push people

beyond their language. For example, Plato’s forms were

irrelevant abstractions because no one could really articulate

what he meant by a “form.” Mankind, Wittgenstein

argued, was captured in the reality of language. If he could

not speak or describe it then it was not real. This had profound

ramifications on Western philosophy and made

Wittgenstein one of the early leaders of postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a philosophy that argues that there is no

objective theory of knowledge and truth.

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