1001Philosophers

Ludwig Wittgenstein vs Martin Heidegger

Wittgenstein and Heidegger are the two most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, and the distance between them is often taken as the canonical distance between the analytic and continental traditions. Despite this they share substantial concerns.

At a glance

Ludwig WittgensteinMartin Heidegger
Dates1889 – 19511889 – 1976
NationalityAustrianGerman
EraContemporaryContemporary
Movements Analytic Philosophy Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, Existentialism
Profile Ludwig Wittgenstein → Martin Heidegger →

Where they agree

Both held that traditional metaphysics rests on misunderstandings rooted in language, both treated the analysis of how we ordinarily speak and live as more philosophically fundamental than the construction of theoretical systems, and both held that there is something essential about philosophy that resists statement in scientific propositions. Both wrote in unconventional forms — Heidegger's etymologies and neologisms, Wittgenstein's numbered remarks — that deliberately resist treatment as standard philosophical doctrine.

Where they disagree

The differences are more visible than the agreements. Wittgenstein's later work treats philosophical problems as confusions to be dissolved through careful attention to ordinary language; Heidegger treats them as openings onto the question of being, to be deepened rather than dissolved. Wittgenstein has no place for Heidegger's history of metaphysics; Heidegger has no patience for Wittgenstein's therapeutic dissolution. The contrast in style — austere clarity against poetic obscurity — is itself part of the philosophical disagreement.

Representative quotes

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.

Martin Heidegger

  • “Language is the house of Being.”

    Die Sprache ist das Haus des Seins.

  • “Man is not the lord of beings. Man is the shepherd of Being.”

    Letter on Humanism (1947)

  • “The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.”

    Das Bedenklichste in unserer bedenklichen Zeit ist, dass wir noch nicht denken.

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