Open Access“Ludwig Wittgenstein” – A BBC Radio Talk by Elizabeth Anscombe in May 1953
Author(s) -
Christian Erbacher,
Anne dos Santos Reis,
Julia Jung
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nordic wittgenstein review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2194-6825
pISSN - 2242-248X
DOI - 10.15845/nwr.v8i1-2.3556
Subject(s) - reading (process) , philosophy , ordinary language philosophy , epistemology , literature , linguistics , art , western philosophy
Presented here is the transcript of a BBC radio broadcast by Elizabeth Anscombe that was recorded in May 1953 – the month when Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations appeared in England for the first time. In her radio talk, Anscombe provides some biographical and philosophical background for reading the Philosophical Investigations. She addresses the importance of the Tractatus and of the literary qualities of Wittgenstein’s writing. Anscombe warns that it would be fruitless to adopt slogans from Wittgenstein without insight. She also calls it a misunderstanding to think that Wittgenstein had championed something like the Ordinary Language Philosophy as it was practised at the time of the recording.