When I informed a friend that I was traveling to Vienna, she suggested reading “Wittgenstein’s Vienna” (thanks, Myriam). I didn't just read it once; I read it twice: both before and after the trip.

Ludwig Wittgenstein's ideas, especially his famous “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (1889 - 1951), can be extremely useful in this era of crumbling truths, conspiracy theories, unverifiable facts and images, and a flood of cheap ideological opinions. A strict discipline safeguarding the scientific and logical quality of public statements would be of great assistance.

However, this book is not about that. Janik and Toulmin aim to explain how Wittgenstein was first and foremost Viennese and how his philosophy was deeply ingrained in the cultural scene of the Austrian capital in the first decades of the 20th century. Wittgenstein moved to Cambridge in 1929 and has long been discussed within the tradition of Anglo - Saxon analytical philosophy, which focuses on epistemological questions, the “truth value” of propositions, and how to use language to “describe” reality. He was regarded as a philosopher of knowledge, dealing with the Kantian question: “What can I know?”

Janik and Toulmin show that Wittgenstein's pursuit of truth was the result of an ethical concern for authenticity rather than a mere desire to construct an infallible logical toolbox. Wittgenstein grew up in Habsburg Vienna, where Emperor Franz Joseph overlooked the waltzing high society that tried not to notice the growing inadequacy of century - old structures to accommodate modernity and the increasing diversity of the huge empire. Pretending that everything was as it used to be was the Viennese way of handling things. Just as Freud revealed repressed sexuality, there were journalists, musicians, scientists, artists, and architects all turning the fundamentals of their disciplines upside down.

Through a very comprehensive overview of the cultural and intellectual life in Vienna, this book reveals how Wittgenstein's philosophy is rooted in a Germanic tradition and specifically in a Viennese context. The efforts of Arnold Schönberg to create a new musical language mirror the break made by architect Adolf Loos, who replaced the ornamentalism of Baroque and Seccesion Vienna with a sleek and functional design. Similarly, Wittgenstein wanted to make a new start with the language of philosophy.

“Wittgenstein’s Vienna” is an adventurous journey through a diverse landscape that seamlessly connects the mysticism of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy with artists like Klimt or Kokoschka, logicians like Frege and Russell, physicists like Mach and Boltzmann, and long - forgotten but then famous Viennese journalists (Kraus), all within the mind and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Some parts are not easy to read, but a visit to Vienna benefits greatly from this book.

If you want to learn about Wittgenstein's philosophy, this might not be the best book, but if you wish to understand the background against which this philosophy became possible, it is highly recommended.

2.5 Stars

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