Letters from Ludwig Wittgenstein with A Memoir (English and German Edition)

Paul Engelmann was a friend and disciple of Wittgenstein's at just the time when Wittgenstein was composing his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. He first gives a picture of the attractive and earnest personality of the young Wittgenstein. Then come two chapters dealing with religious questions and Wittgenstein's literary and musical tastes. In chapter 4 Engelmann deals with the Tractatus, arguing that attention has been paid too exclusively to the logical part of the work, at the expense of Wittgenstein's anything but nihilistic belief in the inexpressibility of "the higher". There is some valuable new light cast on his reactions to Russell's Preface and his later association with Moritz Schlick. The Last chapters give some account of Wittgenstein's family and compare him with two of the leading spirits of Vienna, Karl Kraus and Adolf Loos. There are about 50 letters by Wittgenstein; and a brief account of Engelmann by a friend, and his own account of his reasons for publication, serve as Preface. Some footnotes and an additional appendix are supplied by B.F. McGuinness.