Wittgenstein

By: W.W. Bartley III

Narrated by: Jim Denison

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna in 1889 and died in Cambridge, England in 1951. He was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.

"The portrait that emerges from this account is human, all too human, but the author's respect for Wittgenstein is never in doubt. Though brief and written so that it can be understood by those with no previous knowledge of Wittgenstein's philosophy, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of the man and of the development of his thought.”

Walter Kaufmann

©1973, 1981, 1983, 1985 William Warren Bartley, III (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The pioneer work on this topic has now been done by Professor W.W. Bartley." (George Steiner, The New Yorker)

A nice brief coverage of Wittgenstein

What did you love best about Wittgenstein?

I wanted to know more about Wittgenstein the person, as well as his philosophy and his place in history, but I didn't want to read a lengthy biography or a philosophy textbook. This was a good compromise. He's a pretty inspiring individual in many ways, and the author clearly responded to that without going overboard. As for the philosophy, I'll probably re-listen to the chapter(s) that describe the two stages of his philosophy and how they fit into the thought of the times.

What about Jim Denison’s performance did you like?

He's a good reader with a good European delivery. His German was good, but his French was mangled. But overall a very good reading and good audio quality.

Any additional comments?

For me this was time well spent, and not a difficult listen.

light on philosophy, heavy on biography

There is some good back story to his teaching days, but this is mostly tawdry and wildly speculative.