Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

Monk's is a tough job. If you know anything about Wittgenstein, you know he is enigmatic - both in terms of his personality and lifestyle, and also his perplexing, yet genius, philosophical views. Yet Monk presents both in as transparent a manner as is perhaps possible, given the nature of his subject. The book is eminently readable, which makes it length a ~positive~ feature. For example, I read the book a chapter at a time, to savour it. The readability comes in large part through Monk's extensive quotations from Wittgenstein's own diary and letters, and the letters of those who corresponded with him. This means that one is transported back to Wittgenstein's world, instead of reading just the dry prose of a biographer (Monk's own writing, of course, is anything but dry).

Most importantly, though, Monk presents Wittgenstein in such a way that many people will be able to befriend this incredible and mysterious man. Wittgenstein was driven by passions - his need to express his thought in a way intelligible and meaningful to others drove him close to suicide on several occasions. He was a man deeply in need of feeling that he was 'understood' - both philosophically and humanly - which were the same for him. (Thus his mentor for a time Bertrand Russell failed on both accounts, as Monk finely illustrates). He loved his friends and detested all things which he considered base. He was a logician who broke down logic, a philosopher who wanted to put an end to much of philosophy, a hermit, a mystic.

There is a mystique about Wittgenstein, and rightfully so. Those who read this book will either find him an eccentric, or they will in a way fall in love with this man. Either way, you will walk away with insight into one of the most startling, influential and powerful minds of our time.


A great biography   July 29, 2000
Andreas Saugstad (Oslo, Oslo Norway)
38 out of 40 found this review helpful

Ray Monk has written an excellent book about Wittgenstein. I can say without doubt that this is one of the best books I have ever read.

Ray Monk is professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton in England. He studied Wittgenstein at Oxford University, and has also written an extensive biography about Russell. In an interview I did with Monk for a Norwegian newspaper, Monk emphasized that he admired Wittgenstein's intensity, and that he sees two important traits in Wittgenstein's personality: (1) his demand for intellectual clarity, (2) his demand for ethical perfection.

The book gives you insight into the person and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. One learns that Wittgenstein's life and philosophy are intimately connected, and one may wonder whether it is possible to understand Wittgenstein's work without knowing something about his life. Monk describes how the young Wittgenstein came into philosophy from engineering and mathematics. Wittgenstein showed an intense interest in philosophical problems, as Betrand Russell said "he had to understand or die". Wittgenstein studied in Cambridge, lived as a hermit in Norway, was a soldier under the first world war, a school teacher in Austria and professor in Cambridge. Monk describes Wittgenstein's life, and one may see how his life and philosophy are connected - for instance how the last part of Tractatus may be understood in light of the fact that Wittgenstein devloped a religious attitude to life and read Tolstoy intensively during the first world war.

Wittgenstein was a true philosopher. He gave himself to the problems, and he truly struggled with them. The book may be very inspiring for serious scholars in many fields, as well as writers, poets, philosophy students and many others.

Philosophy is more than a game of the name. Although Wittgenstein is very important to analytic philoophy, he must be understood as a thinker with a deep existential motivation. Althoug Wittgenstein was must be seen in relation to Frege and Russell, there are many other important writer that are important in relation to Wittgenstein, for instance Kant, Schopenhauer, Weininger, Kierkegaard and St. Augustine and others.

Monk's biography helps to see Wittgenstein's approach to both life and philosophy.


A superb biography of a philosophical genius   June 14, 1999
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
30 out of 30 found this review helpful

Everything Wittgenstein scholars had been hoping that Brian McGuinness's biography was going to be but wasn't. Valuable both for the philosopher and for the layperson who would perhaps like a better understanding of one of the century's most important philosophers.

Contrary to the one reviewer below, the Bartley biography is one of the most notorious and irresponsible biographies of any philosopher of the 20th century. It is a travesty of scholarship, and an embarrassment to anyone with an critical eye. It is no secret that Wittgenstein was gay, but Bartley tries to prove (with no proof existing to this effect) that Wittgenstein engaged in a kind of sexual activity of the most promiscuous kind. His proof is of the sort: some guy I ran into in a gay bar in Manchester said he knew a guy who looked like Wittgenstein who liked to take rough boys out for a bit of fun. In short, we are not told who these sources were, which means that they cannot be further assessed as to reliability and veracity, not to mention the fact that his depiction of Wittgenstein contrasts markedly with what we know of Wittgenstein from well-documented sources. Not exactly the kind of evidence that scholars like to utilize in making their assertions. The Bartley biography suffers in equal parts from a lack of philosophical understanding on the part of Bartley and a willingness to credit the flimsiest sort of hearsay.

The Toulmin and Janik book is much better than the Bartley (I am somewhat biased as I took two seminars with Toulmin), but it is an attempt to articulate Wittgenstein's intellectual and cultural background, and is more of a supplement to a biography rather than actually being a biography.

The Monk biography is wonderfully human biography, which makes Wittgenstein come alive as a flesh and bone individual. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Wittgenstein or in 20th century philosophy.


Connects the man and his work   September 2, 2004
C. Middleton (Australia)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

Even for those not acquainted with analytical philosophy or the subject of philosophy in general, the name Ludwig Wittgenstein will sound familiar. He is known in some circles as the "tortured genius" as his life was a passionate and agonizing battle to be true to his nature and to discover `real' philosophy with the intent of putting an end to the subject all together. Some believed he achieved this end - the man certainly re-directed philosophical enquiry in our modern times. The problem with most of us lesser creatures, understanding Wittgenstein's thought and work is a momentous task. If you have had the pleasure or tormenting experience of reading or studying his Tractatus Logico-philosophicus or Philosophical Investigations, or one or two of the literarily thousands of commentaries and secondary sources on his work, you will comprehend or at least relate to the complexity of his thought. The Duty of Genius is a great philosophical biography because the author has managed to elegantly connect Wittgenstein the man, his spiritual concerns and emotional preoccupations, with his philosophy, in one flowing, well-written narrative. I came away from this book with greater insight into analytical philosophy and a deep appreciation of the man himself.

Wittgenstein was one of the most opinionated men I have ever read about. In fact he had an opinion on just about everything, particularly music. He believed that no other music after Brahms was worth listening to and Mozart and Beethoven are the true "son's of God". He loved reading American detective stories and believed our so-called modern age is a dark age in all respects. Similar to a good pragmatist, he believed that knowledge and doing, action, were intimately connected. He had a privileged up bringing in pre WW1 Vienna, a fascinating, tumultuous and highly creative period before the fall of the Austrian Hungarian Empire. He was a neighbour of Sigmund Freud and went to the same Primary school as Adolph Hitler. (Both remembered each other later in life during WW2.) He inherited a large fortune and ended up giving most of it away. He wrote his first major work, The Tractatus, while a prisoner of war in Italy. All of these things are wonderfully described in the biography, but Monk has managed to convey something about the man that is hard to define, and that was his magnetic personality. Wittgenstein's magical presence is legendary and the numerous anecdotes described by Monk, I believe, truly gives the reader a vivid sense of this presence, his genius comes through loud and clear in this book. And this is what makes this biography so moving and interesting.

This biography will not give the reader a full comprehension of Wittgenstein's philosophy, however, as an introduction, putting the man and his work into their proper historical context, the clouds begin to dissipate and a glimmer of understanding begins to appear - extremely engaging, informative, well-written and entertaining.







One of the best Biographies I have read   January 19, 2001
Jeffrey Wolf (Berkeley, CA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Not only is Ludwig Wittgenstein one of the most fascinating and influential philosophers of the 20th century, but he is also one of the most interesting persons too.

Ray Monk does an incredible job of probing into Wittgenstein's psyche, and the result is an extremely intimate, gripping tale of a man possessed with a unique mind and similarly original attitude towards life. Wittgenstein reminds me of what a 7th century monk might have been like.

Monk handles Wittgenstein's complex philosophy well sithout over simplifying it. Moreover, he never tries to separate W's philosophy from his personality. Since they are so closely linked, it would be a big mistake to do so, and Monk deftly avoids doing so.

Finally, I particularly liked the dozens and dozens of personal letters we have from W. and how Monk interpret's W's often bizarre behavior (he had a penchant for American detective stories...). Just a great book about a great mind which will no doubt leave its mark.