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Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was written by Wittgenstein in German and published in 1921 as Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung. (It was translated into English and published with its Latin title in 1922.) Focused on logic and metaphysical topics, it is considered among the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. Its publication also launched a reluctant Wittgenstein as one of the great thinkers of his time. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is structured around 525 declarative statements, or propositions, as it examines the roles and the significance of both language and science.
Blue and Brown Books (1958)
The Blue and Brown Books were written by Wittgenstein between 1933 and 1935. The contents of two books are lecture notes that Wittgenstein dictated to his students at Cambridge University, with the Blue Book being dictated in 1933–1934 and the Brown Book in 1934–1935. Both books provide readers with an indication of the direction Wittgenstein’s thinking took during these years, and the Brown Book represents an early draft of ideas that would later appear in Wittgenstein’s posthumously published Philosophical Investigations (1953). The Blue and Brown Books circulated among Wittgenstein’s students and friends for many years before they were bound and published together for the first time in 1958.
Philosophical Investigations (1953)
Philosophical Investigations was published in 1953, two years after Wittgenstein’s death. The work delivers an extended criticism of the approach to philosophical thinking that focuses on creating metaphysical theories and deep explanations that cut to the core of the concepts that govern human life and reality. Wittgenstein argues that since there, in fact, are no concepts or explanations hiding beneath the surface of everyday phenomena, and because these metaphysical theories are built upon unwarranted assumptions or generalizations (often born out of the structure of our grammar), this approach is deeply flawed. The purpose of Wittgenstein’s philosophy as presented in Philosophical Investigations is to lead us to recognize temptations toward metaphysical thinking and to learn to defeat them.
