5 Lessons from Wittgenstein

This book continues my series on 5 lessons from great thinkers where I choose five brief passages from one or more works of a great thinker to engage in critical reflection, discussion, and commentary enticing readers to further explore their writings. This short book on the Austrian philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), who was associated with Cambridge University, explores five themes in his later philosophy: language games, meaning as use of a word, what is thinking, understanding a rule or series, and the nature of philosophy. Wittgenstein's writings are not easy to follow, but you will have the opportunity to engage with some of his ideas and consider my own sympathetic reaction to those ideas. I invite the reader to further explore the works of Wittgenstein and the many other scholarly and biographical works on this famous thinker whom some revere as the most important philosopher of the 20th century. For me, Wittgenstein's greatest contribution is on method: examining the relevant language games before we pontificate on what something must mean, whether we are writing on history, philosophy, or psychology. That innovative notion of language games is more than enough to justify our becoming familiar with Wittgenstein.