Editing Ludwig Wittgenstein (section)

== 1903–1906: Realschule in Linz ==

=== Realschule in Linz ===
[[File:Realschule in Linz.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The ''[[Realschule]]'' in [[Linz]]]]
Wittgenstein was taught by private tutors at home until he was 14&nbsp;years old. Subsequently, for three years, he attended a school. After the deaths of Hans and Rudi, Karl relented and allowed Paul and Ludwig to be sent to school. Waugh writes that it was too late for Wittgenstein to pass his exams for the more academic [[Gymnasium (school)|''Gymnasium'']] in Wiener Neustadt; having had no formal schooling, he failed his entrance exam and only barely managed after extra tutoring to pass the exam for the more technically oriented [[Imperial and Royal|k.u.k.]] ''[[Realschule]]'' in [[Linz]], a small state school with 300&nbsp;pupils.{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|pp=51ff}}{{sfn|Waugh|2008|p=33}}{{efn|The successor institution to the ''Realschule'' in Linz is [[Bundesrealgymnasium Linz Fadingerstraße]].}} In 1903, when he was 14, he began his three years of formal schooling there, lodging nearby during the term with the family of Josef Strigl, a teacher at the local gymnasium, the family giving him the nickname Luki.{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|p=51}}<ref name="Sandgruber">{{Cite news |last=Sandgruber |first=Roman |url=https://www.nachrichten.at/archivierte-artikel/serien/wir-oberoesterreicher/Das-Geld-der-Wittgenstein;art11547,561859 |title=Das Geld der Wittgenstein |newspaper=[[Oberösterreichische Nachrichten]] |date=26 February 2011 |location=Linz |access-date=5 July 2016 }}</ref>

On starting at the Realschule, Wittgenstein had been moved forward a year.{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|p=51}} Historian [[Brigitte Hamann]] writes that he stood out from the other boys: he spoke an unusually pure form of [[High German]] with a stutter, dressed elegantly, and was sensitive and unsociable.{{sfn|Hamann|2000|pp=15–16, 79}} Monk writes that the other boys made fun of him, singing after him: "Wittgenstein wandelt wehmütig widriger Winde wegen Wienwärts"{{sfn|Monk|1990|pp=14–15}}<!-- Monk can only be used as a source for the original German because this is incorrectly translated by Monk as "Wittgenstein wends his woeful windy way Vienna-wards"--> ("Wittgenstein wanders wistfully Vienna-wards (in) worsening winds"). In his leaving certificate, he received a top mark (5) in religious studies; a 2 for conduct and English, 3 for French, geography, history, mathematics and physics, and 4 for German, chemistry, geometry and freehand drawing.{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|p=51}} He had particular difficulty with spelling and failed his written German exam because of it. He wrote in 1931:{{blockquote|My bad spelling in youth, up to the age of about 18 or 19, is connected with the whole of the rest of my character (my weakness in study).{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|p=51}}}}

=== Faith ===
Wittgenstein was baptized as an infant by a Catholic priest and received formal instruction in Catholic doctrine as a child, as was common at the time.<ref name=MW />{{page needed|date=May 2021}} In an interview, his sister Gretl Stonborough-Wittgenstein says that their grandfather's "strong, severe, partly ascetic [[Christianity]]" was a strong influence on all the Wittgenstein children.<ref>Stonborough-Wittgenstein, Gretl. Reviewed in Flowers and Ground. ''Portraits of Wittgenstein''.{{full citation needed|date=May 2021 |reason=Undecipherable, cite says _Stonborough-Wittgenstein, Gretl_ is the author. _Flowers & Ground_ are editors of _Portraits of Wittgenstein_; the quotation is apparently not in the 2018 edition}}</ref> While he was at the ''Realschule'', he decided he lacked religious faith and began reading [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] per Gretl's recommendation.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=18}} He nevertheless believed in the importance of the idea of [[confession]]. He wrote in his diaries about having made a major confession to his oldest sister, Hermine, while he was at the ''Realschule''; Monk speculates that it may have been about his loss of faith. He also discussed it with Gretl, his other sister, who directed him to Schopenhauer's ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]''.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=18}} As a teenager, Wittgenstein adopted Schopenhauer's [[Transcendental idealism|epistemological idealism]]. However, after he studied the philosophy of mathematics, he abandoned epistemological idealism for [[Gottlob Frege]]'s [[Logical realism|conceptual realism]].{{sfn|Malcolm|1958|p=6}} In later years, Wittgenstein was highly dismissive of Schopenhauer, describing him as an ultimately "shallow" thinker: {{blockquote|One could call Schopenhauer a quite ''crude'' mind.... Where real depth starts, his finishes.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Ludwig |last=Wittgenstein |translator-last=Winch |translator-first=Peter |year=1998 |title=Culture and Value: A Selection from the Posthumous Remains, Revised Edition |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=0-631-20570-5}}</ref>}} Wittgenstein's relationship with Christianity and with religion in general, for which he always professed a sincere and devoted sympathy, changed over time, much like his philosophical ideas.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Ludwig |last=Wittgenstein |translator-last=Winch |translator-first=Peter |year=1980 |title=Culture and Value |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-90435-1 }}</ref> In 1912, Wittgenstein wrote to Russell saying that [[Mozart]] and [[Beethoven]] were the actual sons of God.{{sfn|McGuinness|2008|p=34}} However, Wittgenstein resisted formal religion, saying it was hard for him to "bend the knee",<ref>Portraits of Wittgenstein, 113{{edition needed|date=May 2025}}</ref> though his grandfather's beliefs continued to influence Wittgenstein – as he said, "I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view."<ref>Wittgenstein, Ludwig, reviewed in ''Wittgenstein's Religious Point of View'', Tim Labron</ref> Wittgenstein referred to [[Augustine of Hippo]] in his ''Philosophical Investigations''. Philosophically, Wittgenstein's thought shows alignment with religious discourse.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Bruce R. |last=Ashford |title=Wittgenstein's Theologians: A Survey of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Impact on Theology |journal=[[Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society]] |volume=50 |number=2 |date=June 2007 |pages=357–75 |url=https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/50/50-2/JETS_50-2_357-375_Ashford.pdf}}</ref> For example, he would become one of the century's fiercest critics of [[scientism]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Monk|first1=Ray |date=20 July 1999|title=Wittgenstein's Forgotten Lesson|magazine=Prospect Magazine |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/regulars/ray-monk-wittgenstein|access-date=24 August 2014}}</ref>

Wittgenstein's religious belief emerged during his service for the Austrian army in World War I,{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=148}} and he was a devoted reader of Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's religious writings.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=136}} He viewed his wartime experiences as a trial in which he strove to conform to the will of God, and in a journal entry from 29 April 1915, he writes: {{blockquote|Perhaps the nearness of death will bring me the light of life. May God enlighten me. I am a worm, but through God I become a man. God be with me. Amen.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=138}}}} Around this time, Wittgenstein wrote that "Christianity is indeed the only sure way to happiness", but he rejected the idea that religious belief was merely thinking that a certain doctrine was true.{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=122}} From this time on, Wittgenstein viewed religious faith as a way of living and opposed rational argumentation or proofs for God.

With age, a deepening personal spirituality led to several elucidations and clarifications, as he untangled language problems in religion{{mdash}}attacking, for example, the temptation to think of God's existence as a matter of scientific evidence.<ref>Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Lectures on Religious Belief"</ref> In 1947, finding it more difficult to work, he wrote:{{blockquote|I have had a letter from an old friend in Austria, a priest. In it he says that he hopes my work will go well, if it should be God's will. Now that is all I want: if it should be God's will.<ref name="ReferenceA">Rush Rhees, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections''.</ref> }}In ''Culture and Value'', Wittgenstein writes:{{blockquote|Is what I am doing [my work in philosophy] really worth the effort? Yes, but only if a light shines on it from above.}}His close friend Norman Malcolm wrote:{{blockquote|Wittgenstein's mature life was strongly marked by religious thought and feeling. I am inclined to think that he was more deeply religious than are many people who correctly regard themselves as religious believers.<ref name=MW />{{page needed|date=May 2021}}}}Toward the end, Wittgenstein wrote:{{blockquote|Bach wrote on the title page of his ''[[Orgelbüchlein]]'', 'To the glory of the most high God, and that my neighbour may be benefited thereby.' That is what I would have liked to say about my work.<ref name="ReferenceA" />}}

=== Influence of Otto Weininger ===
[[File:OttoWeiningerspring1903.jpg|thumb|upright|Austrian philosopher [[Otto Weininger]] (1880–1903)]]
While a student at the ''Realschule'', Wittgenstein was influenced by Austrian philosopher [[Otto Weininger]]'s 1903 book ''Geschlecht und Charakter'' (''[[Sex and Character]]''). Weininger (1880–1903), who was Jewish, argued that the concepts of male and female exist only as [[Platonic realism|Platonic forms]], and that Jews tend to embody the Platonic femininity. Whereas men are basically rational, women operate only at the level of their emotions and sexual organs. Jews, Weininger argued, are similar, saturated with femininity, with no sense of right and wrong, and no soul. Weininger argues that man must choose between his masculine and feminine sides, consciousness and unconsciousness, platonic love and sexuality. Love and sexual desire stand in contradiction, and love between a woman and a man is therefore doomed to misery or immorality. The only life worth living is the spiritual one – to live as a woman or a Jew means one has no right to live at all; the choice is genius or death. Weininger committed suicide, shooting himself in 1903, shortly after publishing the book.{{sfn|Monk|1990|pp=19–26}} Wittgenstein, then 14, attended Weininger's funeral.{{sfn|Hamann|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GHJjAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA229 229]}} Many years later, as a professor at the [[University of Cambridge]], Wittgenstein distributed copies of Weininger's book to his bemused academic colleagues. He said that Weininger's arguments were wrong, but that it was the way they were wrong that was interesting.<ref>{{Cite book |page=216 |title=Philosophical Tales |last=Cohen |first=M. |publisher=Blackwell |year=2008}}</ref> In a letter dated 23&nbsp;August 1931, Wittgenstein wrote the following to [[G. E. Moore]]:{{blockquote|Dear Moore,<br /><br />Thanks for your letter. I can quite imagine that you don't admire Weininger very much, what with that beastly translation and the fact that W. must feel very foreign to you. It is true that he is fantastic but he is great and fantastic. It isn't necessary or rather not possible to agree with him but the greatness lies in that with which we disagree. It is his enormous mistake which is great. I.e. roughly speaking if you just add a "~" to the whole book it says an important truth.{{sfn|McGuinness|2008|p=141}}}}In an unusual move, Wittgenstein took out a copy of Weininger's work on 1 June 1931 from the Special Order Books in the university library. He met Moore on 2 June, when he probably gave this copy to Moore.{{sfn|McGuinness|2008|p=141}}

=== Jewish background and Hitler ===
{{Further|History of the Jews in Austria}}

Despite their and their forebears' Christianization, the Wittgensteins considered themselves Jewish. This was evident during the Nazi era, when Ludwig's sister was assured by an official that they wouldn't be considered as Jews under the racial laws. Indignant at the state's attempt to dictate her identity, she demanded papers certifying their Jewish lineage.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes |first=Paul |last=Strathern |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |year=1996 |pages=49–50}}</ref>

In his own writings, Wittgenstein frequently referred to himself as Jewish, often in a self-deprecating manner. For instance, while criticizing himself for being a "reproductive" rather than a "productive" thinker, he attributed this to his Jewish sense of identity. He wrote: 'The saint is the only Jewish "genius". Even the greatest Jewish thinker is no more than talented. (Myself for instance).'<ref>{{Cite book |title=Culture and Value |first=Ludwig |last=Wittgenstein |translator-last=Finch |translator-first=Peter |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |year=1998 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-631-20570-8 |pages=15e–19e [16e]}}</ref>

There is much discussion around the extent to which Wittgenstein and his siblings, who were of 3/4 Jewish descent, saw themselves as Jews. The issue has arisen in particular regarding Wittgenstein's schooldays, because Adolf Hitler was, for a while, at the same school at the same time.{{sfn|Klagge|2001|pp=221, 237}} Laurence Goldstein argues that it is "overwhelmingly probable" that the boys met each other and that Hitler would have disliked Wittgenstein, a "stammering, precocious, precious, aristocratic upstart&nbsp;..."; Strathern flatly states they never met.{{sfn|Goldstein|1999|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EvHPNoKvmf0C&pg=PA167 167ff]}}<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Clear and Queering Thinking |journal=Mind |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |jstor = 2659846}}</ref> Other commentators have dismissed as irresponsible and uninformed any suggestion that Wittgenstein's wealth and unusual personality might have fed Hitler's antisemitism, in part because there is no indication that Hitler would have seen Wittgenstein as Jewish.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McGinn |first=Marie |title=Hi Ludwig |work=Times Literary Supplement |date=26 May 2000 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeEv4PokHb0C&pg=PT308 |title=Autism and creativity: Is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability? |publisher=[[Routledge]] |first=Michael |last=Fitzgerald |date=2 August 2004 |page=308 |isbn=978-1-135-45340-4 }}</ref>

Wittgenstein and Hitler were born just six days apart, though Hitler had to re-sit his mathematics exam before being allowed into a higher class, while Wittgenstein was moved forward by one, so they ended up two grades apart at the ''Realschule''.{{sfn|McGuinness|1988|pp=51ff}}{{efn|Hitler started at the school on 17&nbsp;September 1900, repeated the first year in 1901, and left in the autumn of 1905.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kersaw |first=Ian |title=Hitler, 1889–1936 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2000 |page=16ff |isbn=978-0-393-32035-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nV-N10gyoFwC }}</ref>}} Monk estimates that they were both at the school during the 1904–1905 school year, but says there is no evidence they had anything to do with each other.{{sfn|Hamann|2000|pp=15–16, 79}}{{sfn|Monk|1990|p=15}}{{efn|Brigitte Hamann argues in ''Hitler's Vienna'' that Hitler was bound to have laid eyes on Wittgenstein, because the latter was so conspicuous, though she told ''Focus'' magazine that they were in different classes, and she agrees with Monk that they would have had nothing to do with one another.{{sfn|Hamann|2000|p={{page needed|date=May 2021}}}}<ref name=phantom>{{Cite news |last=Thiede |first=Roger |url=https://www.focus.de/auto/neuheiten/zeitgeschichte-phantom-wittgenstein_aid_169829.html |title=Phantom Wittgenstein |work=Focus |date=16 March 1998 |access-date=7 April 2020 |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714220646/https://www.focus.de/auto/neuheiten/zeitgeschichte-phantom-wittgenstein_aid_169829.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>}} Several commentators have argued that a school photograph of Hitler may show Wittgenstein in the lower left corner,{{sfn|Hamann|2000|pp=15–16, 79}}{{Refn|For examples, see:
* {{Cite book|ref=none |last=Cornish |first=Kimberley |title=[[The Jew of Linz]] |publisher=Arrow |year=1999 }}
* {{Cite book|ref=none |last=Blum |first=Michael |translator=Margarethe Clausen |year=2005 |title=Monument to the birth of the 20th century [a campaign, an exhibition, a book] |language=de |place=Frankfurt am Main |publisher=Revolver, Archiv für Aktuelle Kunst |isbn=978-3-86588-047-5 |oclc=723264682}}{{efn|Blum's material was on display in an exhibition (''Open House'', March 11 – May 2, 2004) at the OK Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blum |first=Michael |title=Dear reader |website=blumology.net |url=http://www.blumology.net/letterE.html |access-date=9 September 2010}}</ref> and at the Galerija Nova, Zagreb in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Monument to the birth of the 20th century |website=blumology.net |url=http://www.blumology.net/monument.html |access-date=9 September 2010}}</ref>}}
* {{Cite news |ref=none |last=Gibbons |first=Luke |title=An extraordinary family saga |newspaper=Irish Times |date=29 November 2008 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1129/1227828897751.html |access-date=21 February 2020 |archive-date=22 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022010529/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1129/1227828897751.html  }} }}{{efn|Hamann says the photograph stems from 1900 or 1901, before Wittgenstein's time.<ref name=phantom /> The [[German Federal Archives]] says the image was taken "circa 1901"; it identifies the class as 1B and the teacher as Oskar Langer.<ref name=Bundesarchiv>{{Cite web |title=Leonding.- Class photo with teacher Oskar Langer and Adolf Hitler as students |date=c. 1901 |publisher=Das Bundesarchiv [The Federal Archives] |id=183-R99197 |access-date=2021-05-18 |url=https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dba/de/search/?yearfrom=&yearto=&query=183-R99197 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518195206/https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dba/de/search/?yearfrom=&yearto=&query=183-R99197 |archive-date=2021-05-18 |url-status=live}}</ref> The archive gives the date as circa 1901, but wrongly calls the place the ''Realschule'' in Leonding, near Linz. Hitler attended primary school in Leonding, but from September 1901 went to the ''Realschule'' in Linz itself.<ref>Kershaw, Ian. ''Hitler, 1889–1936''. W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, p. 16ff.</ref>
Christoph Haidacher and Richard Schober write that Langer taught at the school from 1884 until 1901.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haidacher |first1=Christoph |last2=Schober |first2=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqQUAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA140 |title=Von Stadtstaaten und Imperien |publisher=Universitätsverlag Wagner |year=2006 |page=140 |isbn=978-3-7030-0420-9}}</ref>}}
[[File:Hitler at school in 1901.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|Class photograph at the ''Realschule'' in 1901, a young Adolf Hitler in the back row on the right. In the penultimate row, third from the right, a student who is believed to be Ludwig Wittgenstein.]]
While Wittgenstein would later claim that "[m]y thoughts are 100% Hebraic",{{sfn|Drury|1984|p=161}} as [[Hans Sluga]] has argued, if so, {{blockquote|His was a self-doubting Judaism, which had always the possibility of collapsing into a destructive self-hatred (as it did in [[Otto Weininger|Weininger's]] case) but which also held an immense promise of innovation and genius.{{sfn|Sluga|Stern|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DtNoEoshjfkC&pg=PA2 2]}}}}By Hebraic, he meant to include the Christian tradition, in contradistinction to the Greek tradition, holding that good and evil could not be reconciled.{{sfn|Sluga|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1wqYHjoA81AC&pg=PT14 14]}}