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Ludwig Wittgenstein
(26 Apr 1889 - 29 Apr 1951)
Austrian-British philosopher who applied modern logic to metaphysics, working in the philosophy of mathematics, of mind, and of language. He wrote the highly regarded Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, his only book-length work on philosophy.
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Science Quotes by Ludwig Wittgenstein (15 quotes)
Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus logico-philosophicus (1921, 1955), Sec. 5.6, 149.
Die Welt ist alles, was der Pall ist.
The world is everything that is the case.
The world is everything that is the case.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus logico-philosophicus (1921, 1955), Sec. 1, 31.
The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1922), 187 (statement 6.5).
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus logico-philosophicus (1921, 1955), Sec. 7, 189.
If a lion could talk, we could not understand him.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Philosophical Investigations (1953), trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, 223.
Man has to awaken to wonder—and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
in Culture and Value (1984), 5e.
Mathematics is a logical method … Mathematical propositions express no thoughts. In life it is never a mathematical proposition which we need, but we use mathematical propositions only in order to infer from propositions which do not belong to mathematics to others which equally do not belong to mathematics.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1922), 169 (statements 6.2-6.211).
The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
John Mitchinson and John Lloyd, If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People?: Smart Quotes for Dumb Times (2009), 217.
There can never be surprises in logic.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1922), 165 (statement 6.1251).
There is no one central problem in philosophy, but countless little problems. Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
From conversation with Rush Rhees (1930) as given by Rush Rhees in Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections (1981), 96.
To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 41
To pray is to think about the meaning of life.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 178
We could present spatially an atomic fact which contradicted the laws of physics, but not one which contradicted the laws of geometry.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
In Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1922), 45 (proposition 3.021).
We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course there is then no question left, and just this is the answer.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
From the German, “Wir fühlen, dass selbst, wenn alle möglichen wissenschaftlichen Fragen beantwortet sind, unsere Lebensprobleme noch gar nicht berührt sind. Freilich bleibt dann eben keine Frage mehr; und eben dies ist die Antwort,” in Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung (1921). German text with English translation in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), 186-187.
What a curious attitude scientists have: ‘We still don’t know that; but it is knowable and it is only a matter of time before we get to know it!’ As if that went without saying.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Quoted in S. Hilmy, The Later Wittgenstein: The Emergence of a New Philosophical Method (1987), 220.
Quotes by others about Ludwig Wittgenstein (1)
Somebody once observed to the eminent philosopher Wittgenstein how stupid medieval Europeans living before the time of Copernicus must have been that they could have looked at the sky and thought that the sun was circling the earth. Surely a modicum of astronomical good sense would have told them that the reverse was true. Wittgenstein is said to have replied: “I agree. But I wonder what it would have looked like if the sun had been circling the earth.”
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 11.
See also:
- Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, by Ludwig Wittgenstein. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Ludwig Wittgenstein.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
