Overview

Difficult to know and impossible to forget, Ludwig Wittgenstein is remembered as the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. He published only one book in his lifetime — a masterpiece that moulded the evolution of philosophy and baffled his teachers. Spanning most of his life, from his early encounters with Bertrand Russell in Cambridge to a final trip to New York via the Russian Front, Wittgenstein: The Crooked Roads tracks the journeys of a tortured soul. William Lyons, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Trinity College, Dublin, has written a moving and philosophically acute journey through successive decades of Wittgenstein’s career. The play received its world premiere on 19 April 2011 at the Riverside Studios.

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9781474218412

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Reviews

This play 'is undaunted by [Wittgenstein's] famously incomprehensible ideas ... [It] grabs philosophical enquiry by the shoulders and gives it a good shake ... This is a show brimming with ideas and ... these playful techniques . . lend a lightness to proceeding, a sense of fun which aids in the digestion of some baffling philosophical ideas ...Wittgenstein is not afraid to air philosophical ideas. Did we understand them all? No. Will you understand them? Probably not. Does that matter? Not a bit. In fact that's the whole point. As we find in the brilliant viva scene, very few people understood Wittgenstein, not even his previous teachers. Londonist

This play is undaunted by [Wittgenstein's] famously incomprehensible ideas . . . [It] grabs philosophical enquiry by the shoulders and gives it a good shake . . . Wittgenstein is not afraid to air philosophical ideas. Did we understand them all? No. Will you understand them? Probably not. Does that matter? Not a bit. In fact that's the whole point. * Londonist *

This play is undaunted by [Wittgenstein's] famously incomprehensible ideas ... [It] grabs philosophical enquiry by the shoulders and gives it a good shake ... Wittgenstein is not afraid to air philosophical ideas. Did we understand them all? No. Will you understand them? Probably not. Does that matter? Not a bit. In fact that's the whole point. Londonist

Author Information

William Lyons was formerly head of the Department of Philosophy (1985–1995) and Professor of Moral Philosophy (1985–2004) in the School of Mental and Moral Science, Trinity College Dublin. He is now an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

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