1001Philosophers

Bertrand Russell vs Ludwig Wittgenstein

Russell and Wittgenstein are the two foundational figures of twentieth-century analytic philosophy. Wittgenstein was Russell's student at Cambridge before the First World War, and the relation between teacher and student became a relation between rival philosophies of logic and language.

At a glance

Bertrand RussellLudwig Wittgenstein
Dates1872 – 19701889 – 1951
NationalityBritishAustrian
EraContemporaryContemporary
Movements Analytic Philosophy Analytic Philosophy
Profile Bertrand Russell → Ludwig Wittgenstein →

Where they agree

Both held that philosophical problems arise largely from the misunderstanding of language and that careful logical analysis is the proper method of philosophy, both took mathematics and modern logic as central to philosophical inquiry, and both worked in close dialogue with Frege. Russell's Principia Mathematica and Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus are the two great early documents of the analytic tradition.

Where they disagree

Russell held that logical analysis discloses the ultimate constituents of reality — the simple particulars and universals out of which complex states of affairs are built. Wittgenstein, in the Tractatus, agreed in form but reached a more austere conclusion: most traditional philosophy attempts to say what can only be shown, and many philosophical problems dissolve once their linguistic form is properly understood. The later Wittgenstein went much further, abandoning the picture theory of meaning altogether for a view of meaning as use within forms of life — a position Russell never accepted and treated with bewilderment.

Representative quotes

Bertrand Russell

  • “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”

    The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

  • “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

    What I Believe, 1925

  • “To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”

    Marriage and Morals, 1929

Ludwig Wittgenstein

  • “The world is everything that is the case.”

    Original German: Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist .

  • “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

    Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.

  • “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

    Variant translations: | The limits of my language stand for the limits of my world. | The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for. | Original German: Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.

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