Abstract

Except for the quaint second half of Schwarzschild's piece, both “Wittgenstein as Alienated Jew” by Schwarzschild and “On Wittgenstein and Ethics: A Reply to Levi” by Rudebush and Berg subscribe to the principle that a man's life (as well as the epoch in which he lives) bears some relation to his ideas and can be a significant clue in their understanding.

One thinks of this principle as a commonplace method in the history of ideas, but unfortunately it has been fanatically resisted by some of Wittgenstein's literary executors and devoted followers. In a letter to Engelmann, Elizabeth Anscombe wrote: “If by pressing a button it could have been secured that people would not concern themselves with his personal life, I should have pressed the button.”