Methodological Changes In Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophy – From The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus To The Lecture On Ethics To His Late Philosophy

Ulrich Arnswald (University of Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck)

Wittgenstein's philosophy underwent revolutionary changes in its methodology, which, surprisingly, have neither been discussed nor realized to this day: while the Tractatus still claimed to clarify all philosophical problems completely, the philosophy of the Post-Philosophical Investigations does the opposite. It only attempts to solve its own problems.

While the Tractatus seeks to free philosophy from all unnecessary and superfluous thinking and speaking and to say only what can be said, the philosophy of the Post-Philosophical Investigations revels in endless chains of examples, some of which differ only in nuances. The method of late philosophy is not sober, but rich and expansive. It is the opposite of what the Tractatus wanted to be.

Wittgenstein is fully aware of his technique of philosophizing by means of examples, for he himself emphasizes the advantages of this approach to his readers in the Philosophical Investigations. The lecture will trace the methodological changes in Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy from the Tractatus logico-philosophicus to the Lecture on Ethics to his late philosophy.