Editing Ludwig Wittgenstein (section)

== 1941–1947: Guy's Hospital and Royal Victoria Infirmary ==
Monk writes that Wittgenstein found it intolerable that a war ([[World War II]]) was going on and he was teaching philosophy. He grew angry when any of his students wanted to become professional philosophers.{{efn|For his desire that his students not pursue philosophy, see {{harvp|Malcolm|1958|p=28}}.}}

In September&nbsp;1941, he asked [[John Ryle (professor)|John Ryle]], the brother of the philosopher [[Gilbert Ryle]], if he could get a manual job at [[Guy's Hospital]] in London. John Ryle was professor of medicine at Cambridge and had been involved in helping Guy's prepare for [[the Blitz]]. Wittgenstein told Ryle he would die slowly if left at Cambridge, and he would rather die quickly. He started working at Guy's shortly afterwards as a dispensary porter, delivering drugs from the pharmacy to the wards where he apparently advised the patients not to take them.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=431}} In the new year of 1942, Ryle took Wittgenstein to his home in Sussex to meet his wife who had been determined to meet him. His son recorded the weekend in his diary;{{blockquote|Wink is awful strange [sic] – not a very good english speaker, keeps on saying 'I mean' and 'its "tolerable{{"'}} meaning intolerable.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=434}}}} The hospital staff were not told he was one of the world's most famous philosophers, though some of the medical staff did recognize him – at least one had attended Moral Sciences Club meetings – but they were discreet. "Good God, don't tell anybody who I am!" Wittgenstein begged one of them.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=432}} Some of them nevertheless called him Professor Wittgenstein, and he was allowed to dine with the doctors. He wrote on 1&nbsp;April 1942: "I no longer feel any hope for the future of my life. It is as though I had before me nothing more than a long stretch of living death. I cannot imagine any future for me other than a ghastly one. Friendless and joyless."{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=431}} It was at this time that Wittgenstein had an operation at Guy's to remove a [[gallstone]] that had troubled him for some years.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=436}}

He had developed a friendship with Keith Kirk, a working-class teenage friend of [[Francis Skinner]], the mathematics undergraduate he had had a relationship with until Skinner's death in 1941 from [[polio]]. Skinner had given up academia, thanks at least in part to Wittgenstein's influence, and had been working as a mechanic in 1939, with Kirk as his apprentice. Kirk and Wittgenstein struck up a friendship, with Wittgenstein giving him lessons in physics to help him pass a [[City and Guilds]] exam. During his period of loneliness at Guy's he wrote in his diary: "For ten days I've heard nothing more from K, even though I pressed him a week ago for news. I think that he has perhaps broken with me. A ''tragic'' thought!"{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=443}} Kirk had in fact got married, and they never saw one another again.{{sfn|Monk|1990|pp=442–423}}

While Wittgenstein was at Guy's he met Basil Reeve, a young doctor with an interest in philosophy, who, with R. T. Grant,<ref name="Schardt" /> was studying the effect of wound shock<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://philosophynow.org/issues/33/Wittgensteins_Significance|title=Wittgenstein's Significance |first=MJ |last=Cain |journal=[[Philosophy Now]]|issue=33 }}</ref> (a state associative to [[hypovolaemia]]<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1445-2197.2007.04130_6.x
|title=Wittgenstein and the concept of "wound shock" |first=G.J. |last=Stewart |journal=ANZ Journal of Surgery|year=2007 |volume=77|issue=s1|pages=A82–A83 |doi=10.1111/j.1445-2197.2007.04130_6.x |s2cid=73370285 }}</ref>) on air-raid casualties. When the Blitz ended there were fewer casualties to study. In November&nbsp;1942, Grant and Reeve moved to the [[Royal Victoria Infirmary]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], to study road traffic and industrial casualties. Grant offered Wittgenstein a position as a laboratory assistant at a wage of £4 per week, and he lived in Newcastle (at 28&nbsp;Brandling Park, [[Jesmond]]<ref name="Schardt">{{Cite web |first=Bill |last=Schardt |title=Wittgenstein upon Tyne |work=Newcastle Philosophical Society |url=http://www.newphilsoc.org.uk/OldWeb1/Wittgenstein/wittgenstein_upon_tyne.htm |access-date=8 April 2020 |archive-date=6 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906041133/http://www.newphilsoc.org.uk/OldWeb1/Wittgenstein/wittgenstein_upon_tyne.htm  }}</ref>) from 29&nbsp;April 1943 until February&nbsp;1944.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=447}} While there he worked
<ref>{{harvc |last=Kinlen|first=Leo |c=Wittgenstein in Newcastle |year=2018 |in1=Flowers |in2=Ground |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KVlkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA364 364]}}</ref><ref name="Barlow" /> and associated socially with [[Erasmus Darwin Barlow|Erasmus Barlow]],<ref name=Barlow>{{Cite news|url= https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/not-just-any-old-rubbish-1639324|title=Not just any old rubbish|work=Evening Chronicle}}</ref> a great-grandson of [[Charles Darwin]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Erasmus Darwin Barlow |last=Cook |first=G.C.|journal=[[British Medical Journal]]|year=2006|volume=332|issue=7544|page=798|pmc=1420686}}</ref>

In the summer of 1946, Wittgenstein thought often of leaving Cambridge and resigning his position as Chair. Wittgenstein grew further dismayed at the state of philosophy, particularly about articles published in the journal [[Mind (journal)|''Mind'']]. It was around this time that Wittgenstein fell in love with Ben Richards (who was a medical student), writing in his diary, "The only thing that my love for B. has done for me is this: it has driven the other small worries associated with my position and my work into the background." On 30&nbsp;September, Wittgenstein wrote about Cambridge after his return from Swansea, "Everything about the place repels me. The stiffness, the artificiality, the self-satisfaction of the people. The university atmosphere nauseates me."{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=493}}

Wittgenstein had only maintained contact with Fouracre, from Guy's hospital, who had joined the army in 1943 after his marriage, only returning in 1947. Wittgenstein maintained frequent correspondence with Fouracre during his time away displaying a desire for Fouracre to return home urgently from the war.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=493}}

In May&nbsp;1947, Wittgenstein addressed a group of Oxford philosophers for the first time at the Jowett Society. The discussion was on the validity of [[René Descartes|Descartes']] ''[[Cogito ergo sum]]'', where Wittgenstein ignored the question and applied his own philosophical method. [[Harold Arthur Prichard]] who attended the event was not pleased with Wittgenstein's methods;{{blockquote|Wittgenstein: If a man says to me, looking at the sky, 'I think it will rain, therefore I exist', I do not understand him.<br/>Prichard: That's all very fine; what we want to know is: is the ''cogito'' valid or not?{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=496}}}}