David Peat

80 From Certainty to Uncertaintysion in Vienna for one of his sisters and if he had continued along thispath he could well have made a successful career as an architect.Then in 1929, at the age of 40, Wittgenstein decided to return tophilosophy and the University of Cambridge. The trigger may havebeen a lecture he had heard the previous year in Vienna, given by L. E.J. Brouwer, on the foundations of mathematics. Ironically, because hehad not formally completed his Ph.D., this major philosopher (or antiphilosopher)was forced to register as a graduate student. A year later,however, he was made a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.Wittgenstein returned to philosophy because he realized that therewas more to be said about language. He did not, however, seek to publishany major book, make a grand summing-up, or create anoverarching philosophical system. His remaining years as a philosopherwere spent lecturing and talking to students. As to academic lifeitself, he thought little of it and refused to dine at High Table. Onestory has it that he set up his own card table in the dining room so thathe could eat without having to talk to other academics. Instead ofteaching in a lecture hall he preferred his own sparsely furnished roomwhere students would bring in chairs and cushions.Wittgenstein did not lecture on known topics, or explain establishedphilosophical principles. He simply talked without notes andthought out loud in front of his students. Wittgenstein was doingphilosophical research on the fly and constantly arriving at new results.Sometimes he would berate himself for being slow and stupid,other times he would simply wait in silence. At still other times therewould be a lively conversation. With great concentration he wouldbring the group to a question that his students were supposed to answer.This would lead, in turn, to other questions. When he was dissatisfiedand depressed with his lectures he would ask a student to accompanyhim to a film where he insisted on sitting in the first row so thathe could be utterly absorbed.One of the pathways he was exploring was the limitation of hisearlier picture theory of language. Wittgenstein related many anecdotesabout this to his students and friends and they varied from version toversion. One story has to do with his explaining to an Italian economist,P. Sraffa, that a proposition in language must have the same logi-