/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10948276]

>most important philosopher of the 20th century
>wasn't even a philosopher, but just a plane engineer

How was this possible?

[Anonymous No.10948278]

>>10948276
>How was this possible?
Philosophy is stupid.

[Anonymous No.10948296]

More importantly why this nigga fucking solve philosophy in the trenches?

[Anonymous No.10948298]

>>10948276
planes are pretty neat

[Anonymous No.10948299]

Were you not paying attention when Plato said you need to know geometry first before you can begin philosophy?

[Anonymous No.10948302]

>>10948296
stark clarity

[Anonymous No.10948304]

>>10948276
Philosophy needs outsiders.

The reason it came to be so looked down upon was that philosophers, rather than building on historical and scientific developments, dove further up into their own asses.

[Anonymous No.10948338]

>>10948276
>>10948298
>>10948296
>>10948304
Sounds fun.

>He began his studies in mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg, Berlin, on 23 October 1906, lodging with the family of professor Dr. Jolles. He attended for three semesters, and was awarded a diploma (Abgangzeugnis) on 5 May 1908.

>During his time at the Institute, Wittgenstein developed an interest in aeronautics. He arrived at the Victoria University of Manchester in the spring of 1908 to study for a doctorate, full of plans for aeronautical projects, including designing and flying his own plane. He conducted research into the behavior of kites in the upper atmosphere, experimenting at a meteorological observation site near Glossop. Specifically, the Royal Meteorological Society researched and investigated the ionization of the upper atmosphere, by suspending instruments on balloons or kites. At Glossop Wittgenstein worked under Professor of Physics Sir Arthur Schuster.

>He also worked on the design of a propeller with small jet engines on the end of its blades, something he patented in 1911, and which earned him a research studentship from the university in the autumn of 1908. At the time, contemporary propeller designs were not advanced enough to actually put Wittgenstein’s ideas into practice, and it would be years before a blade design that could support Wittgenstein’s innovative design was created. Wittgenstein’s design required air and gas to be forced along the propeller arms to combustion chambers on the end of each blade, where it was then compressed by the centrifugal force exerted by the revolving arms and ignited. Propellers of the time were typically wood, whereas modern blades are made from pressed steel laminates as separate halves, which are then welded together. This gives the blade a hollow interior, and therefore creates an ideal pathway for the air and gas.

>Work on the jet-powered propeller proved frustrating for Wittgenstein, who had very little experience working with machinery. Jim Bamber, a British engineer who was his friend and classmate at the time, reported that “when things went wrong, which often occurred, he would throw his arms around, stomp about, and swear volubly in German.” According to William Eccles, another friend from that period, Wittgenstein then turned to more theoretical work, focusing on the design of the propeller — a problem that required relatively sophisticated mathematics.

[Anonymous No.10948351]

>>10948338
>It was at this time that he became interested in the foundations of mathematics, particularly after reading Bertrand Russell's The Principles of Mathematics (1903), and Gottlob Frege's The Foundations of Arithmetic, vol. 1 (1893) and vol. 2 (1903). Wittgenstein's sister Hermine said he became obsessed with mathematics as a result, and was anyway losing interest in aeronautics. He decided instead that he needed to study logic and the foundations of mathematics, describing himself as in a "constant, indescribable, almost pathological state of agitation." In the summer of 1911 he visited Frege at the University of Jena to show him some philosophy of mathematics and logic he had written, and to ask whether it was worth pursuing. He wrote: "I was shown into Frege's study. Frege was a small, neat man with a pointed beard who bounced around the room as he talked. He absolutely wiped the floor with me, and I felt very depressed; but at the end he said 'You must come again', so I cheered up. I had several discussions with him after that. Frege would never talk about anything but logic and mathematics, if I started on some other subject, he would say something polite and then plunge back into logic and mathematics.

Seems like practical constraints and lack of skills were important in turning him to the theoretical.

[Anonymous No.10948352]

>>10948276
>"be" a philosopher
Some kind of degree in demagogy and doing nothing all day but try to produce thoughts that sound intelligent will not make you a philosopher.

[Anonymous No.10948371]

>tfw all of philosophy was btfo by some austrian stem sperg

[Anonymous No.10948379]

>wittgenstein was important

Do people actually believe this?

[Anonymous No.10948393]

>>10948379
>Google Books search "Wittgenstein is imporant"
>About 2,490 results

[Anonymous No.10948409]

>>10948371
Why does he look so evil here?

[Anonymous No.10948415]

>>10948409
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidbauer_incident

[Anonymous No.10948419]

>>10948409
>look

[Anonymous No.10948422]

>>10948415
lol

[Anonymous No.10948433]

you should rather ask how is it that philosophy has managed to stay as an isolated discipline for so many centuries.

real philosophy can only be done as part of something else. it is not a discipline, it is an orientation that a discipline can take.

[Anonymous No.10948613]

>>10948415
>Wittgenstein was reportedly seen as a tyrant by the slower students, delivering cuffs on the ear (Ohrfeigen) as well as pulling hair (Haareziehen). He devoted the first two hours of each school day to mathematics, which some of the students recalled years later with horror, according to Monk.[12] One villager described him as "that totally insane fellow who wanted to introduce advanced mathematics to our elementary school children."[8] The physical punishments were not unusual in Austria for boys at the time, but the villagers were unhappy that he was doing it to the girls too. Girls were not expected to grasp algebra, writes Monk, much less have their ears boxed over it.[12]

>Bartley interviewed some of the pupils in 1969. They told him that Wittgenstein was a nervous teacher. He would break out in a sweat, rub his chin, pull his hair, and bite into a crumpled handkerchief. Bartley suggests that, although it seems clear that Wittgenstein did hit the children, some of the incidents may have been exaggerated. One boy, the brother of the boy Wittgenstein had wanted to adopt, stuffed a pencil up his nose to make it bleed after Wittgenstein slapped him. The story of how Wittgenstein had given a boy a bloody nose spread, and soon other children were playing similar tricks, which included pretending to faint

>tfw your neurotically violent autistic savant teacher wants to adopt you but you'd rather stuck a pencil in your nose until you bleed instead

[Anonymous No.10948635]

>>10948613
Nice reading comprehension retard

[Anonymous No.10948664]

>>10948338
>degree in three semesters and a doctorate the next year
fuck me, now it takes four years for honours and then your best bet is to find a company's dick to suck for five years until you are established

[Anonymous No.10948665]

>>10948276
I don't have dyslexia but for some reason for the my entire life up until maybe two weeks ago I read his name as Wittengeist.

[Anonymous No.10948666]

>>10948276
>most important philosopher of the 20th century
That would be Heidegger. Wittgestein solved philosophy but he was ignored

[Anonymous No.10948782]

>>10948351
This is what's interesting about intellectuals and "great men" in general. They are only allowed to be who they are on the world's terms. Some of us can get away with it, but to truly be known one must serve the larger context regardless of personal wishes.

[Anonymous No.10948929]

>>10948393
>ive internalized my domination by the demiurge to the point where im dependent on it for conscious thought

[Anonymous No.10948938]

>>10948351
>tfw I also have a budding interest in logic and the foundations of mathematics

[Anonymous No.10949011]

>>10948351
This is really sweet. Thanks anon, source? Also, how do I into Wittgenstein?

[Anonymous No.10949025]

>>10949011
>Also, how do I into Wittgenstein?
very carefully

[Anonymous No.10949035]

>>10949011
Forget this overly sophist field and be a mechanical engineer instead.

[Anonymous No.10949066]

>>10949011
>Also, how do I into Wittgenstein?
Anon, with a condom, were he alive. Seeing as he's dead, I don't recommend it.

[Anonymous No.10949210]

>>10948276
*Blocks your path, subtlety implying that meaning exists temporarily*
>"Language games", hehe, oh my sweet summer child.

[Anonymous No.10949546]

>>10949035
desu this is what Wittgenstein himself would recommend

[Anonymous No.10949576]

"Let no one ignorant of geometry enter"

[Anonymous No.10949664]

>>10948276
>Laid groundwork for 18th century enlightenment.
>Greatest rationalist of 17th century.
>Hegel said of him, "...You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all."
>Wasn't even a philosopher, but a lens-grinder and instrument maker.

How was this possible?

[Anonymous No.10949671]

>>10949664
>publishes philosophy
>not a philosopher
How in the fuck?

[Anonymous No.10949683]

>>10949671
It wasn't philosophy, it was Ethics

[Anonymous No.10949689]

>>10949683

[Anonymous No.10949690]

>>10949664
>yfw nietzsche and hegel, two raging anti-semites, both loved Spinoza

[Anonymous No.10949699]

>>10949690
b8

[Anonymous No.10949768]

>>10949011
If you want to get into the Tractus, read Philosophical Investigations first. Witty was sad that nobody seemed to get the Tractus, so he made a bigger effort to be clear on the second go with PI.

You can also just start and end with PI, since he wrote that after his views had evolved a little more since the Tractus. It is only a little over 200 pages.

[Anonymous No.10949791]

>>10948635
Nice dick asshole

[Anonymous No.10949868]

>>10949210
>Was a chemist
>Major contributions to logic and math
>Started pragmatism
>Ended semiotics
>Ideas used for practical applications from AI research to military
>Theory of signs and perception just now being understood and making waves in theorhetical biology
>Casually theorized using electronic logic gates to do logical operations in his footnotes, 50 years before computers were invented

[Anonymous No.10949929]

>>10949035
Engineers are the sophists of the stem world.

[Anonymous No.10949941]

>>10949929
Doesn't the fact that they have to produce shit that actually works keep them in line?

[Anonymous No.10949947]

>>10949671
In that case, Wittgenstein was a philosopher, and OP is a fag.
>Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

[Anonymous No.10949959]

>>10949941
In a way, but nowadays they often have a poor grasp of the principles underlying what they do. Their curriculum relies more on rote memorization of numerical methods than actual math or physics.

[Anonymous No.10949972]

>>10949959
They're just mechanical carpenters, which is perfectly respectable. Better that than detachedly understanding the underlying theory, but never using that knowledge for anyone's benefit

[Anonymous No.10949998]

>>10949972
Math and physics get shit on all the time for not helping people because people don't understand the process. Theory and experiment lead directly to improvements in your life, it just takes years or decades and goes through multiple people along the way. There is also absolutely nothing wrong with expanding knowledge with no material goal.

[Anonymous No.10950005]

>>10949998
I'm not saying that knowledge in itself isn't worth pursuing, but lording that knowledge over other people who actually use their partial knowledge to benefit humanity is arrogant

[Anonymous No.10950084]

>>10948415
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidbauer_incident

>tfw I was knocked unconscious by a psychotic child who threw a loose slab of concrete at my skull while in 2rd grade, resulting in loss of consciousness and excessive bleeding from the skull

Am... Am I gonna m-make it, bros?...

[Anonymous No.10950100]

>>10949941
they’re basically apes, they just imitate the bare knowledge of physicists and chemists. engineers don’t have any contact with the frontier of human knowledge at all, they merely manipulate heuristics, and techniques we’ve derived from that frontier. mathematicians and scientists uncover new mechanisms underlying nature, or at least make extremely useful abstract machines that seem to mimic or at least work within the confines of natural law or even just the flow of energy in nature, engineers do not do this, they take those models, break them down into modular subsets of heuristics and then copy paste them for application as technological developments. they’re clever little monkeys, not thinkers.

[Anonymous No.10950123]

>>10950100
I don't get this line of thinking. There's room for the cobbler and the chemist. We need both. If engineers don't have the skill or inclination to be serious thinkers, they can at least contribute in ways they know how.

[Anonymous No.10950386]

>>10950123
No, the cobbler will be automated away

[Anonymous No.10950581]

>>10950386
By engineers, not physicists.

[Anonymous No.10951124]

>>10948276
Because anyone can be a philosopher with the proper readings.
Isn't this board a proof?!

[Anonymous No.10951143]

>>10951124
Yeah, we're a fountain of wisdom.

[Anonymous No.10951251]

>>10949210
>>10949868
interesting