Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes About Philosophy

Quotes about: Philosophy

• A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Humor

  Garth Hallett, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1977). “A companion to Wittgenstein's "Philosophical investigations"”, Cornell Univ Pr

• I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again 'I know that that’s a tree', pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell him: 'This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Garden, Tree

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1969). “On Certainty”

• Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Mean

  Garth Hallett, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1977). “A companion to Wittgenstein's "Philosophical investigations"”, Cornell Univ Pr

• I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Happiness, Sarcastic, Philosophy

  "The Beginning of the End" by Peter Hershey, (p. 109), 2004.

• Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Silence

  Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) preface

• In philosophy it is always good to put a question instead of an answer to a question. For an answer to the philosophical question may easily be unfair; disposing of it by means of another question is not.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Mean

  Garth Hallett, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1977). “A companion to Wittgenstein's "Philosophical investigations"”, Cornell Univ Pr

• Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Doors, Trying

  Conversation in 1930. "Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections". Book by Rush Rhees, Chapter 6, 1981.

• The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Difficulty, Knows

  "The Blue Book" by Ludwig Wittgenstein, (p. 45), 1965.

• It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Skills, Philosopher

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1984). “Notebooks, 1914-1916”, p.92, University of Chicago Press

• Philosophy just puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything.-Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Lying, Views

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, James Carl Klagge, Alfred Nordmann (1993). “Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951”, p.177, Hackett Publishing

• What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Bottles

  Philosophical Investigations pt. 1, sec. 309 (1953)

• Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. Philosophy does not result in 'philosophical propositions', but rather in the clarification of propositions. Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Giving

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1961). “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus: The German Text of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung”, p.57, Linkgua digital

• All philosophy is a 'critique of language' (though not in Mauthner's sense). It was Russell who performed the service of showing that the apparent logical form of a proposition need not be its real one.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Real, Philosophical

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Francis Pears, Brian McGuinness (2001). “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus”, p.23, Psychology Press

• I'm doing philosophy like an old woman, first I'm looking for my pencil, then I'm looking for my glasses, then I'm looking for my pencil again.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Glasses, Firsts

• For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Doe, Answers

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (2010). “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”, p.107, Cosimo, Inc.

• Sometimes, in doing philosophy, one just wants to utter an inarticulate sound.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Sound, Want

• When one is frightened of the truth then it is never the whole truth that one has an inkling of.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Truth, Philosophy, Philosophical

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1984). “Notebooks, 1914-1916”, p.30, University of Chicago Press

• I think I summed up my attitude to philosophy when I said: philosophy ought really to be written only as a poetic composition.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Attitude, Philosophy, Thinking

• The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Peace, Philosophy, Real

  "Philosophical Investigations". Book by Ludwig Wittgenstein, § 133, 1953.

• Philosophy hasn't made any progress? - If somebody scratches the spot where he has an itch, do we have to see some progress? Isn't genuine scratching otherwise, or genuine itching itching? And can't this reaction to an irritation continue in the same way for a long time before a cure for the itching is discovered?

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Irritation, Long

• There is a truth in Schopenhauer’s view that philosophy is an organism, and that a book on philosophy, with a beginning and end, is a sort of contradiction. ... In philosophy matters are not simple enough for us to say ‘Let’s get a rough idea’, for we do not know the country except by knowing the connections between the roads.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Country, Philosophy, Book

• The philosopher strives to find the liberating word, that is, the word that finally permits us to grasp what up to now has intangibly weighed down upon our consciousness.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosopher, Consciousness

  "Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951" edited by James Carl Klagge and Alfred Nordmann, Ch. 9, (p. 165), 1993.

• Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Doctrine

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Francis Pears, Brian McGuinness (2001). “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus”, p.29, Psychology Press

• Philosophical problems can be compared to locks on safes, which can be opened by dialing a certain word or number, so that no force can open the door until just this word has been hit upon, and once it is hit upon any child can open it.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Children, Philosophy, Philosophical

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, James Carl Klagge, Alfred Nordmann (1993). “Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951”, p.175, Hackett Publishing

• Philosophy limits the thinkable and therefore the unthinkable.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Limits, Unthinkable

Page 1 of 2

← Prev

1

2

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin