These journals offer a view of the philosopher’s preoccupations, his sexual anguish, his struggles with work and his time in the military. By Jennifer Szalai When you purchase an independently ...

No person could reasonably claim to have the answer to the meaning of life. An even more daring claim is to know what meaning is at all. What is the meaning of these very words? Of language as a whole ...

The best class I took in college was on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Until that point, I had avoided philosophy of language as simply being too esoteric and hermetic to be of use. David Pears, ...

My answer on the final exam got me booted from the university.

More than 50 years have passed since two famous philosophers squared off against each other at England’s Cambridge University. Though their raucous debate lasted only ten minutes, it still stirs the ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) sought to lead us beyond the long fantasy — so dominant in philosophy — that a single mind can figure everything out. Rather, we need the greater unity of genuine ...

No one expects contemporary philosophers to be more than mildly eccentric. Creatures of the modern academy, they have careers, not vocations. Some mixture of incentive and professional obligation ...

Anthony Gottlieb, writing in the magazine this week on Alexander Waugh’s “The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War,” relates an amusing anecdote about the famously ascetic Ludwig: when he was a ...

Philosophy has always had to defend itself against the charge that it is empty verbiage, unscientific speculation. Philosophers themselves are often the harshest and most astute critics of their own ...

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. My preoccupation with writing about meaning, love, and happiness derives from my desire to ...