Wittgenstein
by Ray Monk · first published 1994
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible, engaging biography that covers Wittgenstein's life alongside the main thrust of his thought, useful for readers who find his own writings hard going or want a starting point.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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If you’d like to read Wittgenstein but don’t know where to start I would recommend reading “How to read Wittgenstein” by Ray Monk, as an introduction before moving to “Philosophical Investigation” (rather than starting with his first book,…
on “Wittgenstein’s Legacy: The Principles of the Private Language Arguments (2018)” ↗This short article is by Ray Monk, who in 1990 published a biography of Wittgenstein, which I'd highly recommend to anyone wanting to know more about the guy's life and thought. Monk also wrote an excellent 2-volume biography of Bertrand Russell. This article seems to contain nothing…
on “Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Mind on Fire” ↗This lecture was by Ray Monk, who wrote a fantastic and very accessible biography of Wittgenstein: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12079.Ludwig_Wittgenstei... Wittgenstein's work can be pretty difficult to wrap your head around, but Monk does a great job of getting its main thrust while covering…
on “Turing and Wittgenstein on Logic and Mathematics [pdf]” ↗Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein is superb if you have the slightest interest in him.
on “Ask HN: What are some good biographies to read?” ↗All of Ray Monk's biographies are supposedly excellent. I have only read the Wittgenstein one, but he also wrote some books on Bertrand Russell (philosopher/mathematician) and Oppenheimer (scientist.)
on “10,000 Hours with Claude Shannon (2017)” ↗> Where are the nice people who are also influential? I wouldn't recommend taking this article, and specifically this quote, as a suitable basis for saying Wittgenstein wasn't a good or nice person. He was a tremendously complicated person. The biography by Ray Monk paints a much fuller, more nuanced portrait.
on “Wittgenstein at War” ↗My favourite nonfiction read of the year was a biography of Wittgenstein by Ray Monk called The Duty of Genius. Absolutely enthralling read about a really fascinating person. I find Wittgenstein's own writings almost impenetrable, but I feel I got to know and love the man,…
on “Ask HN: Best books read in 2022” ↗…an argument before it has begun. edit: Also, I think LessWrong-types cling on hard to a kind of logical positivism that is philosophically pretty primitive. The most exciting way to study this is via Wittgenstein, probably. He was their foremost figure, and then he turned on them. If you don't want to delve into philosophy, try to read his biography by Ray Monk- "Duty of Genius". I think any techie could follow…
on “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dominance of the Stubborn Minority [pdf]” ↗I'm wrapping up the bio, read, and I gotta say... Chernow's not my favorite biographer (comparing mostly to Ray Monk's bio of Wittgenstein here). On the one hand, the amount of raw material that surfaces is amazing, and I am delighted to have read tons of the Hamilton's own writing and that of his contemporaries. However, if anything the…
on “‘Hamilton’ and History: Are They in Sync?” ↗