Wittgenstein
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
a) As defined by Monty Python's Flying Circus: a beery swine, who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
b) Possibly the most significant philosopher of the twentienth century. Obviously this is not in terms of impact on how we live our lives, for, not only is this a ridiculous method to use to try to assess philosophers, but his work has, notoriously, been overlooked since the sixties. Though the importance of the fundamental reevaluation of status of many great debates in philosophy was initially appreciated by the Ordinary Language philosophers, especially in Oxford, the tenor of English language philosophy later changed radically under the influence of Quine, among others. This has permitted the appearance of many pieces of work, especially in the area of Philosophy of Mind, which encapsulate errors pointed out fifty years ago. Indeed, many of these problems are running wild in related disciplines, such as cognitive neuroscience and Chomskian linguistics. The prognosis for these fields is not good, as their main characterisitic is a lack of the clarity of thought that would seem necessary for practisioners to extricate themselves from the morass of confusions by their own efforts. I'm off to become particularly ill on half a pint of shandy.
b) Possibly the most significant philosopher of the twentienth century. Obviously this is not in terms of impact on how we live our lives, for, not only is this a ridiculous method to use to try to assess philosophers, but his work has, notoriously, been overlooked since the sixties. Though the importance of the fundamental reevaluation of status of many great debates in philosophy was initially appreciated by the Ordinary Language philosophers, especially in Oxford, the tenor of English language philosophy later changed radically under the influence of Quine, among others. This has permitted the appearance of many pieces of work, especially in the area of Philosophy of Mind, which encapsulate errors pointed out fifty years ago. Indeed, many of these problems are running wild in related disciplines, such as cognitive neuroscience and Chomskian linguistics. The prognosis for these fields is not good, as their main characterisitic is a lack of the clarity of thought that would seem necessary for practisioners to extricate themselves from the morass of confusions by their own efforts. I'm off to become particularly ill on half a pint of shandy.
