Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World [Hardcover]

Susan G. Sterrett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While numerous critical studies have traced Wittgenstein's philosophy of language to his study of mathematics and logic under Bertrand Russell, Sterrett, professor of philosophy at Duke, bases this novel intellectual history on the assiduously researched and surprising idea that Wittgenstein's advances in logic and the philosophy of language were related to another early 20th-century invention: the airplane. Weaving together the history of ideas in fin-de-siècle Austria, Germany, England and the United States, Sterrett deftly demonstrates that Wittgenstein drew the inspiration for his groundbreaking Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1914) from theories of physics and of music. She traces his influences to physicists like Ludwig Boltzmann and Edgar Buckingham, as well as his own study of the gramophone and the sound waves it produced. Sterrett draws on Wittgenstein's early aeronautical research and experiences building kites, asserting that the philosopher of language used models of wings as a model of language. Much like scale models of propellers or other toys, he said, language represents facts as we perceive and imagine them. Although often mired in dense, labyrinthine prose, Sterrett's compelling history of ideas offers a new glimpse of this perennially difficult philosopher and his intellectual milieu. (Dec.)
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Review

Sterrett's research . . . is detailed and thorough; and what she has uncovered . . . is fascinating. Her style can be engaging, especially in the historical sections, and is, I believe, accessible to intelligent lay readers. The book includes an excellent index and, as an appendix, a translation of Boltzmann's 1894 lecture on aeronautics. It should definitely be considered as a text for courses in the history and philosophy of technology or science, and as recommended reading for analytically-oriented students of the early Wittgenstein. -- Journal of the History of Philosophy, October 2007

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pi Press (November 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131499971
• ISBN-13: 978-0131499973
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,824,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History of Ideas of Models and Physically Similar Systems, August 9, 2007

By 

Susan G. Sterrett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World (Hardcover)

As author, I'd like to provide the synopsis/abstract of my book "Wittgenstein Flies A Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World" as it appears on my own webpage:

"Abstract: Wittgenstein told friends on many occasions that he came to see how things in the world can be represented in language by thinking about scale models, and that it occurred while he was a soldier, in the autumn of 1914. This book is the result of investigating the idea that perhaps he meant _experimental engineering_ scale models. It is well known that Wittgenstein had been an aeronautical engineer before going to Cambridge to study philosophy with Bertrand Russell in 1911. Why only in 1914, then, did this insight occur? It so happens that 1914 was the year that the basis of the method of experimental engineering scale models was formally set out and presented, by a philosophically-minded physicist, as a matter of a purely logical principle about any symbolic system that is used to represent physical relationships. In fact, a whole array of discussions about similarity arose in 1913-1914, in physics, biology, and chemistry. The book lays out this previously untold story in the history of ideas, presents a new reading of Wittgenstein's philosophical work (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and explains how many heretofore puzzling claims in it click into a coherent account on this new reading. "

However, I don't think you need to have any interest in Wittgenstein to appreciate the history of ideas in the book. I am not aware of another book that gives an account of the historical background to, and a critical-historical review of, the idea of physically similar systems ranging from Galileo to Rayleigh and beyond, including physics, mathematics, biology, and chemistry.

The book also contains an English translation of Boltzmann's 1894 lecture on Aeronautics as an appendix.

.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting thesis that could have used some better editing, July 17, 2010

By 

Chandler Hatch - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World (Hardcover)

The first chapters of this book are excellent. It begins with a fascinating history of the development of flight. The writing is clear and engaging. Sterrett convincingly connects the history of flight to its possible influences on Wittgenstein's thinking. The next few chapters delve deeper into aeronautical engineering, summarizing technical developments by physicists and engineers whose work Wittgenstein may have read.

Unfortunately, the quality of the editing in these later chapters falls off steeply. The quantity of typos rises beyond a standard level for professional publishing. The explanations becoming increasingly opaque to the lay reader without an engineering background. As an earlier reviewer pointed out, simple, valuable aids to reader comprehension are omitted (e.g. Figure 3 is mentioned many pages before it shows up without any reference to where it will be). I felt like I got a pretty good grasp of what Sterrett was trying to say in these chapters, but it was frustrating and required more effort than it should have.

The book redeems itself towards the end by offering useful insights into Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Although I am no expert on the Tractatus, I feel that Sterrett's book sheds valuable light on Wittgenstein's terse and sometimes inscrutable exposition.

Overall, I think the book was worth reading. I won't recommend it to friends without a philosophy background because it simply gets too dense and confusing in the middle for anyone without drive to understand. I would recommend it to those with a special interest in Wittgenstein's philosophy. What would have made this book brilliant is a good editor. It's probably not Sterrett's fault when her prose is not clear or when the reader aids aren't working. What she needed was for some non-specialists to read through the book and point out every place where things weren't clear. She is obviously capable of writing clearly (she pulls it off in several chapters), but it's hard for a writer to see the confusing points in her writing because she knows exactly what she's writing about. I almost suspect that the editors assumed that the material was over their heads and that the intended audience would get it. I feel like I'm part of the intended audience, and I few added explanatory notes would have made it much clearer.

It's worth giving it a try. The early chapters are great. If you struggle in the middle, you can always skim to the last chapters and catch some interesting takes on Wittgenstein.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars kites,bikes,planes, logic and the mind., October 20, 2008

By 

frank de Paola (somewhere deep below the earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World (Hardcover)

Wittgenstein is a philosopher whose life and work seem to pop up where you never expect to find it. The author makes some fascinating connections between W. and the Wright Bros. ( of all people ! ), with Bertrand Russell, with epistemology, computer logic, and lots more.
The book suffers from the absence of photographs, not a single photo of W. himself. There are also a few basic errors such as using "laying" for " lying" . By a PhD., simply unacceptable. Perhaps I should toss the brick at her editor instead because there are others. Another example is in her inaccurate description of the Gnome aircraft engine. A quick Wiki check would have prevented the blunder. A very important foundation stone in W.'s intellectusal development was his refusal to accept Russell's solution to the famous Russell's Paradox. The author I believe should have spent a few more paragraphs on the Paradox itself to help the reader understand how W. used it as a launching pad for his leap into logical symbolism. For this , however, there already exist better books. But I would have bought the book anyway just to learn about the degrees of inherent stability ( comparing bikes to planes) and to enjoy watching her connect these ideas to W.s thinking on fundammental logic and how the mind functions.This book is an entertaining excercise in making connections that I have never heard of and certainly would never have thought of on my own. Buy the book ! Try it. You'll like it and learn a lot you won't find in any textbook.