Wittgenstein

American  

[vit-guhn-shtahyn, -stahyn] / ˈvɪt gənˌʃtaɪn, -ˌstaɪn /

noun

1. Ludwig (Josef Johann) 1889–1951, Austrian philosopher.

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Wittgenstein British  

/ -ˌstaɪn, ˈvɪtɡənˌʃtaɪn /

noun

1. Ludwig Josef Johann (ˈluːtvɪç ˈjoːzɛf joˈhan). 1889–1951, British philosopher, born in Austria. After studying with Bertrand Russell, he wrote the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), which explores the relationship of language to the world. He was a major influence on logical positivism but later repudiated this, and in Philosophical Investigations (1953) he argues that philosophical problems arise from insufficient attention to the variety of natural language use

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Other Word Forms

• Wittgensteinian adjective

Example Sentences

On the final exam on Wittgenstein, we were given the prompt: “Describe, in words he would use, Wittgenstein’s overall view of his own philosophy.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 2, 2025

Born in Vienna to one of Austria’s wealthiest families, Wittgenstein began his academic studies in mechanical engineering and started a Ph.D. in aeronautics but became captivated by philosophy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025

The world's only professional one-handed concert pianist, Nicholas McCarthy, makes his Proms debut, playing a concerto originally written for Paul Wittgenstein, after he lost his right arm during World War One.

From BBC • Apr. 23, 2025

The subjects being communicated by animals may be unlike anything humans might expect or comprehend, which the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once summed up by arguing, “If a lion could speak, we would not understand him.”

From Salon • Aug. 23, 2024

He was particularly taken with a book entitled The Myth of Progress, by Georg Henrik von Wright, a Finnish philosopher and successor to Ludwig Wittgenstein at the University of Cambridge.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady