Ray Monk: Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990–) [EN, ES, GR]
Filed under book | Tags: · biography, language, logic, mathematics, philosophy, vienna circle
Ludwig Wittgenstein possessed one of the most acute philosophical minds of the twentieth century. In this incisive portrait, Ray Monk offers a unique insight into the life and work of a modern genius. Wittgenstein was a tortured man who fought his calling in philosophy and never fully came to terms with his gifts. A reluctant Cambridge don, he was uncomfortable in the university setting and believed that a professor could not be an authentic philosopher. In friendship and in love, he was attracted to gentle, intelligent younger men, yet he was so troubled by his own sensuality that these attachments existed mostly in his imagination. Based on previously unpublished Wittgenstein letters and writings, this richly textured biography reveals the connection between the tormented private man and the genius who, in the epoch-making works Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations, radically redirected philosophical thought in our time.
Publisher Jonathan Cape, 1990
ISBN 0224027123, 9780224027120
654 pages
review (Colin McGinn, London Review of Books)
google books (EN)
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (English, PDF, 1990, 92 MB)
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (English, EPUB, 1990)
Ludwig Wittgenstein: El deber de un genio (Spanish, trans. Damian Alou, 2nd ed., 1994/1997, 13 MB, added on 2014-7-28)
Λούντβιχ Βιτγκενστάιν: Το χρέος της μεγαλοφυΐας (Greek, trans. Γρηγόρης Κονδύλης, 1999, 88 MB)
Palle Yourgrau: A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein (2005)
Filed under book | Tags: · history of mathematics, mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy, physics, science, special relativity, theory of relativity, time, vienna circle
In 1942, the logician Kurt Gödel and Albert Einstein became close friends; they walked to and from their offices every day, exchanging ideas about science, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German science. By 1949, Gödel had produced a remarkable proof: In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist. Einstein endorsed this result reluctantly but he could find no way to refute it, since then, neither has anyone else. Yet cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded as if this discovery was never made. In A World Without Time, Palle Yourgrau sets out to restore Gödel to his rightful place in history, telling the story of two magnificent minds put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue the brilliant work they did together.
Publisher Basic Books, New York, 2005
ISBN 0465092934
210 pages
review (Kelley L. Ross)
PDF (83 MB)
Comment (0)Allan Janik, Stephen Toulmin: Wittgenstein’s Vienna (1973)
Filed under book | Tags: · architecture, art, city, history, language, music, philosophy, vienna, vienna circle
“The central figure in this portrait of a crumbling society giving birth to the modern world without realizing it was Wittgenstein, the brilliant and gifted young thinker whose great book remains the key to modern thought and who went on to influence a whole generation of English thinkers, artists and scientists.
As a portrait of a man, this book is superbly realized. It is even better as a portrait of the age and milieu in which our modern ideas were born–not only in philosophy, but in art, music, literature, architecture, design and style.”
Publisher Simon and Schuster, New York, 1973
A Touchstone Book
ISBN 0671217259, 9780671217259
314 pages
Review: Barry Seldes (H-Net, 1996).
Wittgenstein’s Vienna (English, 1973)
La Viena de Wittgenstein (Spanish, trans. Ignacio Gomez de Liaño, 1998; removed on 2017-10-3 upon request of publishre)