‘Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is an very very short introduction to Wittgenstein. This book is a very short, brief and amusing guide book to Wittgenstein’s philosophy. The main content ‘Wittgenstein’s Life & Works’ is a biographical description of Wittgenstein’s life along with works and philosophy. Biographical description composes from Wittgenstein’s family circumstances and his student days, through the encounter to mathematical logic and Bertrand Russell, his concentration on Philosophy at a hut in Norway, serving in the army during the World War Ⅰ and publishing ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’, to his roaming of way of life (became a teacher, designed Haus Wittgenstein and returned to Cambridge), later philosophy of ‘Philosophical Investigations’ and the rest of his life. The description includes historical and cultural contexts, his unique characteristics of isolation, insanity and holiness. Strathern emphasis influence of Christianity to Wittgenstein and his peculiar religious viewpoint and stance. Similarly, Strathern mentions unique standpoint and stance to philosophy of Wittgenstein. In Wittgenstein religion, way of life, logic and philosophy (how to use language) were connected by his peculiar ascetic manner of thinking. For example ‘Even Wittgenstein’s religion had to assume a logical force and clarity.’ ‘There was something problematic about the world, and this we called its meaning. But this meaning did not lie within the world, it lay outside it. “The meaning of Life, i.e., the meaning of the world we can call God.” According to Wittgenstein, to pray was to think about the meaning of life.’
In this book Strathern is successful in wrote Wittgenstein’s peculiar ascetic and ethical stance and manner of philosophy. And commentary of ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ is essential and great. Wittgenstein thought ‘The limit of language are the limits of thought, because this too cannot be illogical. We cannot go beyond language, for do so would be to go beyond the limits of logical possibility’.
But I think it’s pity, philosophical commentaries of this book is not many. And description of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy in ‘Philosophical Investigations’ is very concise and describe almost only the comparison to philosophy of ‘Tractatus’. Because the author may not regard it as important.
This book is a brief interesting biography and just only a mere introduction to Wittgenstein.