Wittgenstein, Tolstoy and the Meaning of Life Export

@article{citeulike:1181826, abstract = {Tolstoy's writings were clearly important to Wittgenstein. He carried Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief with him during the war, and he said that it 'virtually kept [him] alive'. But commentators have hesitated to extend Tolstoy's influence to Wittgenstein's philosophy. This essay argues that there are important parallels in structure and content between Tolstoy's A Confession and Wittgenstein's Tractatus which suggest Tolstoy's influence and which help us to see how we should understand the Tractatus. By comparing these two works we can see more clearly in the Tractatus the idea that the solution to philosophical problems lies in their disappearance and that the structure and content of the Tractatus are expressions of that conception.}, author = {Thompson, Caleb}, citeulike-article-id = {1181826}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9205.00033}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9205.00033}, doi = {10.1111/1467-9205.00033}, journal = {Philosophical Investigations}, keywords = {philosophy, secondary, wittgenstein}, number = {2}, pages = {96--116}, posted-at = {2007-03-23 16:00:55}, priority = {2}, title = {Wittgenstein, Tolstoy and the Meaning of Life}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9205.00033}, volume = {20}, year = {1997} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1181826 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1181826 N2 - Tolstoy's writings were clearly important to Wittgenstein. He carried Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief with him during the war, and he said that it 'virtually kept [him] alive'. But commentators have hesitated to extend Tolstoy's influence to Wittgenstein's philosophy. This essay argues that there are important parallels in structure and content between Tolstoy's A Confession and Wittgenstein's Tractatus which suggest Tolstoy's influence and which help us to see how we should understand the Tractatus. By comparing these two works we can see more clearly in the Tractatus the idea that the solution to philosophical problems lies in their disappearance and that the structure and content of the Tractatus are expressions of that conception. IS - 2 JF - Philosophical Investigations EP - 116 TI - Wittgenstein, Tolstoy and the Meaning of Life VL - 20 SP - 96 KW - philosophy KW - secondary KW - wittgenstein AU - Thompson, Caleb PY - 1997/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9205.00033 ER -