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Wittgenstein's Vienna

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From the turn of the century until the Nazi Anschluss Vienna was a city of amazing artistic and intellectual creativity. The psychological theories of Freud and Adler, the final development of "Jugendstil" or "art nouveau" in art and architecture, authors such as Schnitzler, Friedell, Kraus and Altenberg, the philosophic and scientific thinking of the Vienna Circle, the "Kaffeehaus" culture...this was all a part of Wittgenstein's Vienna. Vienna at this time was truly a phenomenon, exceeding any other city (including Berlin and Paris) in its intellectual and cultural ferveur. This book discusses this phenomenon with a view towards its effects on Wittgenstein and his philosophy. It is well-researched and scholarly in style, i.e. no tourist book. For a more biographical approach, "The Duty of Genius" by Ray Monk is also excellent.

This book is indeed a model for the writing of intellectual and cultural history. The manner in which it unites its disparate threads -- plastic arts, music, literature, philosophy, politics -- is breathtaking. Such other classics as Carl Schorske's _Fin-de-Siecle Vienna_ pale by comparison, precisely because the unification of different themes is not carried out with such panache or such success. Janik and Toulmin top off their cultural history with a convincing demonstration that Wittgenstein's thought is most important precisely where it departs from the analytic tradition it helped spawn: that is, where it points _beyond_ the limits of language and analysis.

As someone with a strong interest in modern philosophy as well as modern classical music, art and literature, I received more honest pleasure and enlightenment from reading this book than from any other book in recent memory. It is not per se a book about Wittgenstein, but rather an in-depth analysis of the milieu and mind-set of Vienna and its cultural elite circa 1900. Before immersing yourself into this delightful book, it might be a good idea to review the history of Austria-Hungary, how it came to be, the key events surrounding it, the emporer Franz Josef, and the territories which made up the dual monarchy. It also helps if you have some acquaintance with the German language, since German terms are used liberally throughout, often without denoting what those terms mean in English. Not being familiar with German, I found this mildly annoying, but certainly not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for this book.

Some of the most interesting sections of the book concern Viennese social philosophers and the artists whose works were a commentary on the corruption of the "gilded age": Otto Weininger, Kokoschka, Klimt, Schoenberg, Fritz Mauthner, and of course the unforgettable Karl Krauss. There is also a lengthy section on the scientific work of Mach and Hertz, the development of Hertz's "model" theory and its influence on Wittgenstein's Tractatus, as well as a beautifully written synopsis of Schopenhaur's philosophy.

And this is only the barest overview of a stupendously rich and rewarding book, one which all thoughtful people should and must read. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I propose that this book be read simultaneously with "The Conscience of Words", by Elias Canetti. They cover about the same theme, Toulmin's, analytically, Canetti's, poetically. Prepare yourself to an intellectual feast!

This is a dazzlingly dense intellectual history of a time when there was an explosion of new ideas in both the arts and sciences. The place was Vienna, at the end of the Habsburg monarchy, where not only Sigmund Freud (psychlology) but also Loos (design), Schoenberg (music), Kochoscka (painting), and many others were establishing what we now call "modernism." It is also a philosophical tract of great depth, focusing on Wittgenstein. What is so remarkable is how commonplace their ideas and techniques have become in our everyday vocabulary - think "unconscious", but also "form follows function" - and how they all originated there, at the end of the 19C.

According to the authors, the starting point of the modernist movement is to be found in the deterioration of the Habsburg monarchy, spread as it was across a vast central european empire with dozens of languages and ethnic groups. To keep it all together in the face of rising nationalisms, the Habsburgs strove to maintain appearences of power and cohesion at all costs. This created a kind of living falsehood, in which issues were avoided by the use of code words and empty symbolic rituals.

Add to this the rise of new bourgeois fortunes, whereby a new middle classe arose based on industries. They too constructed their own private worlds within their homes, mimicing the Habsburgs and ignoring issues - in particular sexuality - to the point that it generated a latent hysteria in its women and anxiety in the working men, whose children despised them as fakes. Their houses were studded with overly ornate decorations, which were designed to ape the lifestyles of aristocrats, and they lived by elaborate codes of conduct and narrow career choices.

Obviously, this explains the biases in Freud's theories towards explaining too much by "suppressed impulses" buried in the unconscious (read hysterical women), but the authors argue that the great innovator of the age was Karl Krause, an independent satirist who called for honesty in language and the way one chose to live one's life. All of the others, they claim, were direct followers of Krause, from Klimt - he rebelled against the formalism of the royal academy of art with his Secessionist movement - to Wittgenstein and his study of language structure and meaning; even the great physicist Ernst Mach was apparently a follower of Krause, as was Canetti. They all knew eachother and were interested, and even participated, in eachothers' disciplines. This was a total surprise to me.

This is a fascinating intellectual tour (in the first 120 pages) that is evoked in dense prose that I had to read more than once to fully comprehend. I was particulary interested in their explanation of how Loos was attempting to strip away all ornament in an attempt to concentrate on the actual function of the buildings he designed as well as the household objects his followers created. This led directly to Bauhaus and all the other modernist schools of design, which exploited the new materials coming available, such as aluminum and tubular steel, to re-invent furniture, homes, and office spaces in ways that are still ripe for exploration today. I never understood the context in which this movement arose until I read this book.

The remaining 200 pages place Wittgenstein's philosphy in this context. To be honest, this interested me a lot less, but it is a must for students of modern philosophy. This is where the structure of language was explored, which led to the structuralists and to a degree the existentialists. It follows him to England, which comes in for heavy criticsm by the authors. In a way, this reads like a separate book.

Highly recommended. It is an intellectual adventure that is truly first rate.

"In the four intervening chapters, we have been reconstructing a picture of the social and cultural situation in late Habsburg Vienna, indicating the importance of the continuing post-Kantian critique for the men of that milieu--not just for professional philosophers, but for all educated, thinking men. As the outcome of this investigation we have recognized (1) that the need for a general philosophical "critique of language" (Sprachkritik} was already acknowledged in Vienna some fifteen years before Wittgenstein wrote the Tractatus; and (2) that the shortcomings of Mauthner's first attempt at such a comprehensive Sprachkritik had left unresolved one quite specific difficulty which might nevertheless be overcome, if some method could be found of reconciling the physics of Hertz and Boltzmann with the ethics of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy, within a single consistent exposition. The hypothesis to which our analysis has led is, quite simply, that this was the problem with which Wittgenstein was originally preoccupied, and which determined the goal at which the writing of his Tractatus was directed."

Wittgenstein's Vienna p 167/8

Wittgenstein's Vienna
Wittgenstein's Vienna

Ludwig Wittgenstein was the youngest of eight children born to Austrian steel tycoon Karl Wittgenstein. At the family's sumptuous estate, major figures of European cultural life frequently appeared and performed... among them Mahler and Brahms. The entire brilliant but dysfunctional family was musically and intellectually gifted. Paul Wittgenstein was a world-renowned classical pianist despite the loss of one arm. Two of his brothers committed suicide within a few years of each other, and a third killed himself during World War I. Karl Wittgenstein was the undisputed master of his universe, tolerating no deviation from his standards by his children.

A mathematical and musical prodigy largely tutored at home, Wittgenstein distinguished himself in philosophy at Cambridge and became a protégé of Bertrand Russell. His most influential philosophical treatise, Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus, was not published until after his death.
Wittgenstein's Vienna was an astonishing confluence of creativity.
Psychiatrists argued with conventional medical practitioners; poets talked with painters; philosophers argued with theologians.
The Vienna of Wittgenstein's time was a city of paradoxes. Described by some as a second-rate power, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was characterized by extremely bourgeois values, excessively ornamental art,
and mindless obedience to order and discipline. In their excellent overview of Hapsburg Vienna, "Wittgenstein's Vienna," Alan Janik and Stephen Toulmin write: "As the Good Old Days drew to a close, Vienna was above all a city of the bourgeoisie. Most of the leading figures in all fields came from a bourgeoise background. Though Vienna had been a commercial center from time immemorial and had been the center of large=scale public administration since the reign of Maria Theresa, the Viennese bourgeoisie acquired its individual character during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. ... if any single factor can be singled out to account for the special character of Vienna's bourgeois society... it is the failure of liberalism in the political sphere."

Against this background came a group of intellectuals and artists dedicated to reforming the antiquated society. Led by Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos, the composer Arnold Schonberg, and Gustav Klimpt. They organized a withdrawal from the Royal Academy, calling it "The Secession" and built a monument to it , "The Secession House."
The motto of the movement was "Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit" ("To the era its proper art, and to art its proper function.""
This is brilliant social and cultural history, well worth the reading.

See Also:
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889
Thunder At Twilight, Vienna 1913/1914
The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

Good model for intellectual history! In this book, this one of the most influential philosopher in 20c rebirth in the proper cultural and intellectual context.

PHILOSOPHY...PHILO-SOPHIA...THE LOVE OF TRUTH IS MOST DIFFICULT WHERE THOUGHT IS CONCERNED. BUT WAIT A MINUTE, DO WE NOT USE THOUGHT TO EXPRESS WHAT WE FEEL TO BE TRUE..PROVIDE A REASON FOR FEELING SUCH? AHHHH. THE PROBLEM..'WE' USE 'THOUGHT'. IS THE 'WE' DIFFERENT THAN 'THOUGHT'..IS THERE A LITTLE MAN/WOMAN SOMEWHERE IN THE BRAIN USING THIS TOOL CALLED THOUGHT? QUESTION THE PROCESS! I FEEL THAT WITTGENSTEIN FOUND LANGUAGE, THOUGHT TOO LIMITED TO COME UPON TRUTH. VIENNA WAS A HOTBED OF IDEATION WITHIN WHICH A PERSON SUCH AS A 'WITTGENSTEIN' COULD SEE WHERE THOUGHT WAS AND WAS NOT VALID. A WONDERFUL BOOK

okay i've been trained both in sociology and philosophy and would say the book brings the poorest of both worlds.. never believed in intellectual history in general, but this kind of book, with its judgements about Kierkeggardian or Wittgensteinian 'individualism' as a 'natural pathology' of early twentieth century continental bourgeoise society, does nothing but buttress the self-complacency of our now liberal societies. Therefore despite some 'interesting' anectodes and impressions from Habsburg Vienna, the philosophical depth of the book doesnt go above our usual journalistic wisdom. I dont understand how other reviewers found this book brilliant or anything like that. I think recommendable as passtime only.