But the Vienna he was born into, at the tail end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s life, was not a happy place producing happy people. Wittgenstein was born in Vienna to one of the richest of all Austrian families and had an extremely privileged upbringing.

Being such a unique personality, Wittgenstein provides plenty of all three. Rather than summarise a summary of Wittgenstein’s thoughts, I thought I’d note here the parts of his life that struck me as particularly entertaining, saddening, or interesting. This approach works because, for me at least, the parts of Wittgenstein’s thought that are most interesting are precisely those that came from his life – such as the way the mystical sections of the Tractatus came from Wittgenstein’s experience in the First World War. Though Monk’s biography gave me some sense of Wittgenstein’s thoughts, the focus here was more on his life. Wittgenstein’s thoughts on language are worth knowing about, sure, but certainly not near the top of the pile of philosophies I want to have a grasp of. I did not gallop through Ray Monk’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius because I wanted to know about Wittgenstein’s philosophy – I did it because I wanted to know about the man. Thanks for proving that good old fashioned ethics in business are still very much alive.What is attractive about Ludwig Wittgenstein is that he was a real genius. Greensleeves has properly earned a place at the head of our list of favourite places for internet rare book searches. 'Establishments like Greensleeves Books stand head and shoulders above the book vending community and are thus important to us. 'Thank you again for your great service and unending variety of intruiging titles' H L, Northumberland 'Thanks for sending an amazing selection - we keep learning' EMR, Shrops

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Ludwig wittgenstein the duty of genius