Otto Weininger - Influence On Wittgenstein

Influence On Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein read the book as a schoolboy and was deeply impressed by it, later listing it as one of his influences and recommending it to friends. However, Wittgenstein's deep admiration of Weininger's thought was coupled with a fundamental disagreement with his position. Wittgenstein writes to G. E. Moore: "It isn't necessary or rather not possible to agree with him but the greatness lies in that with which we disagree. It is his enormous mistake which is great." Elsewhere Wittgenstein put the same point by saying that if one were to add a negation sign before the whole of Sex and Character, one would have expressed a great truth; that is, he did not disagree with Weininger point by point but as a whole. The themes of the decay of modern civilization and the duty to perfect one's genius occur repeatedly in Wittgenstein's later writings.

Read more about this topic:  Otto Weininger

Famous quotes containing the words influence on, influence and/or wittgenstein:

    Women stand related to beautiful nature around us, and the enamoured youth mixes their form with moon and stars, with woods and waters, and the pomp of summer. They heal us of awkwardness by their words and looks. We observe their intellectual influence on the most serious student. They refine and clear his mind: teach him to put a pleasing method into what is dry and difficult.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    For character too is a process and an unfolding ... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    Propositions show what they say: tautologies and contradictions show that they say nothing.
    —Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)