20th century · 1889–1951

Who influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein?

Influences and legacy

Two philosophies: meaning as logical form, then as ordinary use — both revolutionary.

Ludwig Wittgenstein was influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, Leo Tolstoy, William James, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore, and went on to influence Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, G. E. M. Anscombe, Michael Dummett, Bernard Williams and Richard Rorty. That is 13 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.

Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Moritz Nähr, Public domain See the whole map

Who was Ludwig Wittgenstein?

Born in Vienna into one of Europe's richest families, Wittgenstein studied at Cambridge under Bertrand Russell from 1911 to 1913. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, was held in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp, gave away his fortune and worked as a schoolteacher around Vienna. His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) was the only philosophical book he published in his lifetime.

The early Wittgenstein studied the logical relation between propositions and the world and believed he had solved all philosophical problems. Back at Cambridge, where he taught from 1930 to 1947, he rejected much of the Tractatus; his posthumous Philosophical Investigations (1953) argues that the meaning of a word is its use within a language game.

Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.

Who influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein?

7 direct influences on this map, earliest first.

Arthur Schopenhauer 1788–1860
Søren Kierkegaard 1813–1855
Leo Tolstoy 1828–1910
William James 1842–1910
Gottlob Frege 1848–1925
Bertrand Russell 1872–1970
G. E. Moore 1873–1958

Who did Ludwig Wittgenstein influence?

6 thinkers on this map draw directly on Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Gilbert Ryle 1900–1976
J. L. Austin 1911–1960
G. E. M. Anscombe 1919–2001
Michael Dummett 1925–2011
Bernard Williams 1929–2003
Richard Rorty 1931–2007

The line of teachers behind Ludwig Wittgenstein

The longest documented line of influence ending at Ludwig Wittgenstein runs 26 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.

Two steps away from Ludwig Wittgenstein

Indirect influences

The second generation

Through G. E. M. Anscombe: Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre
Through Gilbert Ryle: Donald Davidson
Through J. L. Austin: John Searle

Contemporaries of Ludwig Wittgenstein

Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Ludwig Wittgenstein, with no direct line between them.

Martin Heidegger 1889–1976
Antonio Gramsci 1891–1937
Edith Stein 1891–1942
Rudolf Carnap 1891–1970
Walter Benjamin 1892–1940
György Lukács 1885–1971
Ernst Bloch 1885–1977
Roman Ingarden 1893–1970

Ludwig Wittgenstein by the numbers

Direct influences: 7
Direct followers: 6 — #16 of 279 on this map
Thinkers upstream: 120
Thinkers downstream: 10
Wikipedia languages: 127 — #6 of 84 among 20th-century philosophers
Card rarity: Legendary

Schools and lineages

Analytic philosophers: Gottlob Frege, G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, A. J. Ayer, W. V. O. Quine, Gilbert Ryle, P. F. Strawson, Donald Davidson, Saul Kripke

Questions about Ludwig Wittgenstein

Who influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein?: Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, Leo Tolstoy, William James, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore.
Who did Ludwig Wittgenstein influence?: Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, G. E. M. Anscombe, Michael Dummett, Bernard Williams and Richard Rorty.
When did Ludwig Wittgenstein live?: 1889–1951. The map files Ludwig Wittgenstein under the 20th century.
How rare is the Ludwig Wittgenstein card?: Wikipedia carries an article on Ludwig Wittgenstein in 127 languages, which makes it a Legendary card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.

More 20th-century philosophers

Jean-Paul Sartre 1905–1980
Albert Camus 1913–1960
Max Weber 1864–1920
Simone de Beauvoir 1908–1986
Bertrand Russell 1872–1970
Martin Heidegger 1889–1976
Umberto Eco 1932–2016
Antonio Gramsci 1891–1937

All 279 thinkers