Abstract
This paper will explore the engagement of Wittgenstein, Ramsey and the Vienna Circle (mostly Schlick and Carnap) in the 1920s. This is before Wittgenstein became what we know as the later Wittgenstein and one upshot of the paper will be that it was Ramsey who turned Wittgenstein away from the quest for a pure and objective language (a quest he shared with the Vienna Circle) and turned him towards the pragmatist idea that meaning is bound up with use.
Some of this material can be found in Misak (2019, 2020), but much is new, such as the sections on structuralism and concept change.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
My policy with respect to citation of archival sources is that when a quote is published somewhere, I cite that source, relying on archival references only when necessary.
- 2.
At the time, Wittgenstein thought that there were two translators, but was soon put right about the fact that it was only Ramsey. Ogden took credit for the translation but it is clear that it was Ramsey who did it. See Misak (2020).
- 3.
ASP/FPR-003-11-01; ASP/FPR 002-10-01.
- 4.
- 5.
Ramsey, although he seems not aware of Neurath’s metaphor about knowledge being like a ship being re-built at sea, was on Neurath’s side in this debate within the Vienna Circle.
- 6.
The translation is due to the separate but combined (by me) efforts of Anna Boncompagni and Joachim Schulte.
- 7.
Here I rely on Limbeck-Lilienau (forthcoming).
- 8.
I have replaced McGuinness’s translation of “Aussage” by “statement” with “proposition”.
- 9.
He would later explain the idea by saying that concepts have “open texture”. See Limbeck-Lilienau (forthcoming).
- 10.
References
Carnap, Rudolf. 1931. Die Physikalische Sprache als Universalsprache der Wissenschaft. Erkenntnis 2: 432–465.
Galavotti, Maria Carla, ed. 1991. Notes on Philosophy, Probability and Mathematics. Naples: Bibliopolis.
Hahn, Hans. 1933/1959. Logic, Mathematics and Knowledge of Nature. In Logical Positivism, ed. Alfred Ayer, 147–161. 1959. Repr. New York: The Free Press.
———. 1987/1933. Logik, Mathematik, Naturerkennen. Repr. Vienna: Gerold.
Hahn, Hans, Rudolf Carnap, and Otto Neurath. 1929. Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis. Vienna: Wolf.
Limbeck-Lilienau, Christoph. From Hypotheses to ‘Open Texture’: The Reception of Ramsey’s Conception of General Propositions in the Vienna Circle (forthcoming).
———, ed. 2012. Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911–1951. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mellor, D. H. 1978. “Better Than the Stars”. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3: 27 February, 1978. Audiofile: http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3484.
Misak, Cheryl. 2019. Ramsey and the Vienna Circle. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy xi/1: 1–16.
———. 2020. Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Neurath, Otto. 1931/1981. Physikalismus. In Otto Neurath: Gesammelte philosophische und methodologische Schriften, ed. Rudolf Haller and Heiner Rutte, 417–421. Repr. Vienna: Holder-Pichler-Tempsky.
Psillos, Stathis. 2006. Ramsey’s Ramsey Sentences. In Cambridge and Vienna: Frank P. Ramsey and the Vienna Circle, ed. M.C. Galavotti, 67–90. Dordrecht: Springer.
Ramsey, Frank. 1923. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Mind 32 (128): 465–478.
———. 1927/1990. Facts and Propositions. In Philosophical Papers, ed. D.H. Mellor. 1990. Repr., 34–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1929a. Philosophy. In Philosophical Papers, ed. D.H. Mellor. 1990. Repr., 1–8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1929b/1990. General Propositions and Causality. In Philosophical Papers, ed. D.H. Mellor. 1990. Repr., 145–164. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1929c. Theories. In Philosophical Papers, ed. D.H. Mellor. 1990, 112–137. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..
Schlick, Moritz. 1918/1925. General Theory of Knowledge, (2nd German Edition). Trans. A. E. Blumberg. Wien & New York: Springer.
Stern, David. 2007. Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Physicalism: A Reassessment. In The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, ed. A. Richardson and T. Uebel, 305–331. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Von Wright, G. H. 1973. Letters to C. K. Ogden with Comments on the English Translation of the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.”, ed. G. H. von Wright, with an appendix of letters by Frank Plumpton Ramsey. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Waismann, Friedrich. 1930. Theses. In Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. Conversations Recorded by Waismann, ed. Brian McGuinness. 1979, 233–261. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. C. K. Ogden. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Misak, C. (2023). Wittgenstein, Ramsey and the Vienna Circle. In: Stadler, F. (eds) Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07789-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07789-0_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-07788-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-07789-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)