Zhang Heng

Zhang Heng (Chinese: 張衡; pinyin: Zhāng Héng; Wade-Giles: Chang Heng) (AD 78–139) was an astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty in ancient China. He had extensive knowledge of mechanics and gears, applying this knowledge to several of his known inventions. According to historian Joseph Needham, Zhang Heng was noted in his day for being able to "make three wheels rotate as if they were one (neng ling san lun du zhuan ye)".[1] He is best known for his invention of the world's first water-powered armillary sphere to represent astronomical observation,[2] and the world's first seismometer device, which discerned the cardinal direction of earthquakes from incredibly far distances.[2][3][4] In the realm of early science, he is often compared by historians to his contemporaries in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
Contents
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* 1 Life
* 2 Achievements in science and technology
o 2.1 Astronomy, mathematics, and calendrical studies
o 2.2 The water-powered armillary sphere
o 2.3 Zhang's seismograph
o 2.4 Odometer and South Pointing Chariot
* 3 A closer look at Zhang's seismograph
* 4 Named in his honour
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes
* 7 References
* 8 External links

[edit] Life

Born in what is now Nanyang, Henan, Zhang Heng was an accomplished writer at twelve. At sixteen, he left home to pursue his study in the capital cities. He spent at least ten years of his youth in literature studies and writing. He published several well recognized literary writings, and was admired for his straightforward style and natural poetic ability. In a poem criticizing the previous Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng once wrote:
Image:Cquote1.png

Those who won this territory were strong;
Those who depended on it endured.
When a stream is long, its water is not easily exhausted.
When roots are deep, they do not rot easily.
Therefore, as extravagance and ostentation were given free reign,
The odour became pungent and increasingly fulsome
Image:Cquote2.png
Zhang Heng[5]

Before his work in astronomy, mathematics, and technological invention, Zhang was a famed and notable literary author of poetry. Xiao Tong (501–531) immortalized several of Zhang's works in his anthology of literature, Wen xuan. Rhapsodies (fu 賦) include "Western Metropolis Rhapsody" 西京賦 (WX 2.36), "Eastern Metropolis Rhapsody" 東京賦 (WX 3.51), "Southern Capital Rhapsody" 南都賦 (WX 4.68), "Rhapsody on Contemplating the Mystery" 思玄賦 (WX 15.213), and "Rhapsody on Returning to the Fields" 歸田賦 (WX 15.222).[6] The latter fu is an especially interesting piece, being very short compared to his other, mainly long epedeictic fu, and possessing a lyrical quality and refinement beyond its time. A set of four short lyric poems shi 詩, entitled "Lyric Poems on Four Sorrows" 四愁詩, is also included with Zhang's preface (WX 29.414). This set constitutes some of the earliest heptasyllabic shi Chinese poetry written. Zhang Heng's Four Stanzas of Sorrow is the first known seven-syllabic poem from China:
Image:Cquote1.png

In Taishan stays my dear sweetheart,
But Liangfu keeps us long apart;
Looking east, I find tears start.
She gives me a sword to my delight;
A jade I give her as requite.
I'm at a loss as she is out of sight;
Why should I trouble myself all night?
Image:Cquote2.png
Zhang Heng[5]

His long lyrical poems also revealed a great amount of information on urban layout and basic geography, with his rhapsody "Sir Based-On-Nothing" providing details on terrain, palaces, hunting parks, markets, and prominent buildings of Chang'an.[6] He also wrote about the various love affairs of the emperor, not satisfied with the imperial harem, going out into the city incognito to seek out prostitutes and sing-song girls. This was seen as a general criticism of present Eastern Han emperors and their imperial favorites, guised in the criticism of earlier Western Han emperors.[7] The focus of Zhang's writing on specific places, its terrain, society, people, and their customs could also be seen as early attempts of ethnographic categorization.[8] With his Reply to Criticism, Zhang Heng was also an early writer and proponent of the Chinese literary genre 'shelun', or 'hypothetical discourse', where the author creates a written dialogue between himself and an imaginary person (or they may be a real person of his entourage or association), and where the other poses questions to the author on how to lead a successful life.[9]

Zhang Heng began his studies in astronomy at the age of thirty, and began publishing his works in astronomy and mathematics. In 116, at the age of thirty-eight, Zhang became a government official for the court of Emperor An of Han. Zhang took on several positions since then, becoming the chief astrologer for the Han court. In his humble Confucian sensibility, Zhang respectfully declined many promotions that were offered to him that would have greatly advanced his career. Zhang eventually accepted the promoted position of President of the Imperial Chancellory. However, the 3rd century Chinese philosopher and poet Fu Xuan once lamented in an essay of his over the fact that Zhang Heng was never placed in the Ministry of Works. Writing highly of Zhang and the 3rd century mechanical engineer Ma Jun, Fu Xuan wrote:
“ ...neither of them was ever an official of the Ministry of Works, and their ingenuity did not benefit the world. When (authorities) employ personnel with no regard to special talent, and having heard of genius neglect even to test it - is this not hateful and disastrous?[10] ”

Zhang was given great honors in life and in death. In honor of his achievements in science and technology, Cui Ziyu wrote a memorial inscription on the burial stele of Zhang Heng that stated:
“ His mathematical computations exhausted (the riddles of) the heavens and the earth. His inventions were comparable even to those of the Author of Change. The excellence of his talent and the splendour of his art were one with those of the gods.[11] ”

[edit] Achievements in science and technology

[edit] Astronomy, mathematics, and calendrical studies
A Qing Dynasty star chart.
A Qing Dynasty star chart.

With his astronomical finds and theories, Zhang was a pioneer of his day. In his publication of 120 AD called Ling Xian (靈憲, Mystical Laws, a summary of astronomical theories at the time), he approximated pi as 730/232 (or approx 3.1466), yet the later 3rd century Chinese mathematician Liu Hui would more accurately approximate pi. In one of his formulae for spherical volume calculation, he also used pi as the square root of 10 (or approx 3.162).[12] Zhang Heng theorized that the universe was like an egg with the stars on the shell and the Earth as the yolk.[4] This was similar to the Western geocentric model before the coming of Galileo Galilei. Although it was the ancient Warring States Chinese astronomers Shi Shen and Gan De who would compile the world's first star catalogue, Zhang nonetheless catalogued 2500 stars alone and recognized over 100 constellations. In relative comparison, this star catalogue featured many more positions for the stars than the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who catalogued roughly 800 stars in his work of the 2nd century BC. In 123 Zhang Heng corrected the Chinese calendar to harmonize more accurately with the timing of the seasons, according to the finds of his astronomical observations. Like his contemporary, the philosopher Wang Chong, Zhang Heng also wrote of astronomical phenomena, such as the solar eclipse and lunar eclipse. In the Ling Xian, he wrote:
“ The sun is like fire and the moon like water. The fire gives out light and the water reflects it. Thus the moon's brightness is produced from the radiance of the sun, and the moon's darkness is due to (the light of) the sun being obstructed. The side which faces the sun is fully lit, and the side which is away from it is dark. The planets (as well as the moon) have the nature of water and reflect light. The light pouring forth from the sun does not always reach the moon owing to the obstruction of the earth itself—this is called 'an-xu', a lunar eclipse. When (a similar effect) happens with a planet (we call it) an occultation; when the moon passes across (the sun's path) then there is a solar eclipse.[13] ”

Writing more than a century before Zhang Heng, Jing Fang (78–37 BC) wrote about the spherical shape of the sun and moon while discussing eclipses:
“ The moon and the planets are Yin; they have shape but no light. This they receive only when the sun illuminates them. The former masters regarded the sun as round like a crossbow bullet, and they thought the moon had the nature of a mirror. Some of them recognized the moon as a ball too. Those parts of the moon which the sun illuminates took bright, those parts which it does not, remain dark.[14] ”

The later scientist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) would also expand upon the reasoning of why sun and moon were spherical.
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere, found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere, found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.

[edit] The water-powered armillary sphere

Zhang Heng is the first known person in history to apply hydraulic-run motive power (ie. by employing a clepsydra and waterwheel) to rotate the astronomical insturment of the armillary sphere.[15][16] The Greek astronomer Eratosthenes invented the first armillary sphere in 255 BC, while the Chinese armillary sphere was developed in earnest by 52 BC, due to the adding of a permanently-fixed equatorial ring by the astronomer Geng Shouchang.[17] In 84 AD the astronomers Fu An and Jia Kui added the ecliptic ring, and finally Zhang Heng added the horizon and meridian rings to the armillary sphere by 125 AD.[17] Zhang described this invention in his written work Lou Shui Zhuan Hun Tian Yi Chi (Apparatus for Rotating an Armillary Sphere by Clepsydra Water) of 125 AD, and besides being one of the most impressive inventions of his day, it would influence later Chinese horologists in making waterclocks that employed complex gears (leading to the discovery of the escapement mechanism by the 8th century). The historian Joseph Needham states:
“ What were the factors leading to the first escapement clock in China? The chief tradition leading to Yi Xing (725 AD) was of course the succession of 'pre-clocks' which had started with Zhang Heng about 125. Reason has been given for believing that these applied power to the slow turning movement of computational armillary spheres and celestial globes by means of a water-wheel using clepsydra drip, which intermittently exerted the force of a lug to act on the teeth of a wheel on a polar-axis shaft. Zhang Heng in his turn had composed this arrangement by uniting the armillary rings of his predecessors into the equatorial armillary sphere, and combining it with the principles of the water-mills and hydraulic trip-hammers which had become so widespread in Chinese culture in the previous century.[18] ”

Indeed, the Chinese tradition of hydraulic engineering was not initiated by Zhang in any sense, as it spanned back as far as the mid Zhou Dynasty (c. 6th century BC), with figures such as Sunshu Ao and Ximen Bao. In the contemporary age of Zhang Heng, there were those such as Du Shi (c. 31 AD), who was the first to apply the motive power of waterwheels to a mechanical device that operated bellows of the blast furnace to smelt cast iron. Still, Zhang's water-powered armillary sphere was a marvel of his day. As noted before, Zhang Heng provided a valuable description of his water-powered armillary sphere in the Lou Shui Zhuan Hun Tian Yi Chi treatise of 125. In it, Zhang states:
“ The equatorial ring goes around the belly of the armillary sphere 91 and 5/19 (degrees) away from the pole. The circle of the ecliptic also goes round the belly of the instrument at an angle of 24 (degrees) with the equator. Thus at the summer solstice the ecliptic is 67 (degrees) and a fraction away from the pole, while at the winter solstice it is 115 (degrees) and a fraction away. Hence (the points) where the ecliptic and the equator intersect should give the north polar distances of the spring and autumn equinoxes. But now (it has been recorded that) the spring equinox is 90 and 1/4 (degrees) away from the pole, and the autumn equinox is 92 and 1/4 (degrees) away. The former figure is adopted only because it agrees with the (results obtained by the) method of measuring solstitial sun shadows as embodied in the Xia (dynasty) calendar.[19] ”

In his treatise on the water-driven armillary sphere, Zhang Heng also provided valuable information on the Chinese clepsydra clock of his day, showing that the Chinese had invented the inflow clepsydra (as opposed to the earlier outflow clepsydra in late Zhou Dynasty China). In Zhang's description, he writes of a 'jade dragon's neck', which in later times meant a siphon,[20] and wrote of the floats and indicator-rods of the inflow clepsydra:
“ Bronze Vessels are made and placed one above the other at different levels; they are filled with pure water. Each has at the botttom a small opening in the form of a 'jade dragon's neck'. The water dripping (from above) enters two inflow receivers (alternately), the left one being for the night and the right one for the day. On the covers of each (inflow receiver) there are small cast statuettes in gilt bronze; the left (night) one is an immortal and the right (day) one is a policeman. These figures guide the indicator-rod (lit. arrow) with their left hands, and indicate the graduations on it with their right hands, thus giving the time.[20] ”

The water-powered armillary sphere of Zhang Heng would have profound effects upon Chinese astronomy and mechanical engineering in later generations. With Zhang Heng's complex use of gears and ingenious model, he would greatly influence later astronomers and engineers such as Yi Xing, Zhang Sixun, Su Song, Shen Kuo, Guo Shoujing, and many others. Zhang Heng's water-powered armillary sphere was continued in the eras of the Three Kingdoms (220–280) and Jin Dynasty (265–420), yet the design for it was temporarily out of use from the years 317 until 418, due to external invasions by northern Xiongnu nomads.[21] The old instruments of Zhang Heng were recovered in 418 when Emperor Wu of Liu Song captured the ancient capital of Chang'an, and although still intact, the marks of graduation and the representations of the stars, moon, sun, and planets were quite worn down by time and rust.[21] In the year 436, the emperor ordered Qian Luozhi, the Secretary of the Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar, to recreate Zhang's device, which was a success.[21] Qian's water-powered celestial globe was still in use by the time of the Liang Dynasty, while continuing models of water-powered instruments in the tradition of Zhang Heng were designed.[21]
A modern replica of Zhang Heng's seismometer, the Houfeng Didong Yi.
A modern replica of Zhang Heng's seismometer, the Houfeng Didong Yi.

[edit] Zhang's seismograph

In 132, Zhang Heng presented to the Han court what many historians consider his most impressive invention. Zhang Heng invented the first seismometer, called Houfeng Didong Yi (lit. instrument for measuring the seasonal winds and the movements of the Earth), for determining the exact direction of tremors and earthquakes.[16] According to the Book of Later Han, his copper-made urn-shaped device, with swinging inverted pendulum inside, was able to detect the direction of an earthquake from hundreds of miles/kilometers away.[22] This was essential for the Han government in sending quick aid and relief to regions devastated by this natural disaster.[22][3] Later Chinese of subsequent periods were able to reinvent Zhang's seismograph, including the 6th century mathematician Xindu Fang of the Northern Qi Dynasty,[23] and the astronomer and mathematician Lin Xiao-gong of the Sui Dynasty (581–618).[24] On June 13, 2005, modern Chinese seismologists announced that they had successfully created a replica of the instrument [25]

[edit] Odometer and South Pointing Chariot

Zhang Heng is often accredited with the invention of the first odometer (also pronounced hodometer) device in China, an achievement alongside earlier contemporaries Archimedes and Heron of Alexandria from the Hellenized West. An odometer is a device which mechanically or electronically measures the distance traveled by an operated vehicle (found standard in modern automobiles), and was a mechanical device used by the Roman and Han-Chinese empires in roughly the same time frame. By the 3rd century, the Chinese had termed the device as the 'ji li gu che', or 'li-recording drum carriage' (Note: the modern measurement of li = 500 m/1640 ft).[26] Ancient Chinese texts tell of the mechanical carriage's functions, and as one li is traversed, a mechanical-driven wooden figure strikes a drum, and when ten li is traversed, another wooden figure would strike a gong or a bell with its mechanical-operated arm.[26] However, there is evidence to suggest that the invention of the odometer was a gradual process in Han Dynasty China that centered around the huang men court people (ie. eunuchs, palace officials, attendants and familiars, actors, acrobats, etc.) that would follow the musical procession of the royal 'drum-chariot'.[27] There is speculation that some time in the 1st century BC, during the Western Han Dynasty, the beating of drums and gongs were mechanically-driven by working automatically off the rotation of the road-wheels.[27] This might have actually been the design of one Loxia Hong (c. 110 BC), yet by at least 125 AD the mechanical odometer carriage was already known, depicted in a mural of the Xiao Tang Shan Tomb.[27]

The South Pointing Chariot is another mechanical contraption accredited to Zhang Heng. It is a non-magnetic compass-vehicle shaped in the form of a wheeled chariot, and functioning off of differential gears. The mechanical device of the differential provides equal amount of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds. This device allowed a fixed wooden figurine (in the shape of a Chinese state minister) to constantly point in the southern direction, hence the name of the device. The Song Shu (c. 500 AD) records that Zhang Heng re-invented it from its earliest model found in the Zhou Dynasty period, but the violent collapse of the Han Dynasty unfortunately did not allow it to be preserved. Whether the ancient passage of this book on Zhang Heng is valid or not, Ma Jun (200–265 AD) of the following century was successful in creating it.[28]

[edit] A closer look at Zhang's seismograph

From the earliest times, the Chinese were concerned with the destructive force of earthquakes. It was recorded in Sima Qian's Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) that in 780 BC an earthquake had been devastative enough to divert the course of three different rivers.[29] The ancient Chinese did not understand the cause of earthquakes as being the shift of tectonic plates in the earth's crust. Chinese of the ancient Zhou Dynasty (1050 BC–256 BC) explained the natural phenomenon in terms of disturbances with cosmic Yin and yang, along with the heavens' displeasure with acts committed (or the common peoples' grievances ignored) by the current ruling dynasty.[29] These theories were ultimately derived from the ancient text of the I Ching (Book of Changes), in its fifty-first hexagram zhen.[30] There were other early theories about earthquakes by those in ancient Greece; Anaxagoras believed that earthquakes derived from excess water towards the surface crust of the earth bursting below into the hollows of the earth; Democritus believed it was because of the saturation of the earth with water; Anaximenes believed it was because of massive parts of the earth falling into the cavernous hollows due to drying; Aristotle believed it was caused by instability of vapor (pneuma) caused by the drying of the moist earth by the warmth of sun rays.[30]

Going against the grain of the early theories proposed by his fellow Chinese and contemporary Greeks, Zhang Heng believed earthquakes to be caused by air, writing:
“ The chief cause of earthquake is air, an element naturally swift and shifting from place to place. As long as it is not stirred, but lurks in a vacant space, it reposes innocently, giving no trouble to objects around it. But any cause coming upon it from without rouses it, or compresses it, and drives it into a narrow space...and when opportunity of escape is cut off, then 'With deep murmur of the Mountain it roars around the barriers', which after long battering it dislodges and tosses on high, growing more fierce the stronger the obstacle with which it has contended.[31] ”

In any case, Zhang was responsible for detecting the cardinal direction of this natural phenomenon. In the Hou Han Shu (Book of Later Han, compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century), there is a detailed description of the device in his biography, which states:
“ In the first year of the Yang-Chia reign period (132) Chang Heng also invented an 'earthquake weathercock' (i.e. a seismograph). It consisted of a vessel of fine cast bronze, resembling a wine-jar, and having a diameter of eight chhih (Note—8 chi is roughly 6 ft). It had a domed cover, and the outer surface was ornamented with antique seal-characters and designs of mountains, tortoises, birds, and animals. Inside there was a central column capable of lateral displacement along tracks in the eight directions, and so arranged (that it would operate) a closing and opening mechanism.[32] ”
“ Outside the vessel there were eight dragon heads, each one holding a bronze ball in its mouth, while round the base there sat eight (corresponding) toads, with their mouths open, ready to receive any ball which the dragons might drop. The toothed machinery and ingenious constructions were all hidden inside the vessel, and the cover fitted down closely all round without any crevice. When an earthquake occurred the dragon mechanism of the vessel was caused to vibrate so that a ball was vomited out of a dragon-mouth and caught by the toad underneath. At the same instant a sharp sound was made which called the attention of the observers.[32] ”
“ Now although the mechanism of one dragon was released, the seven (other) heads did not move, and by following the (azimuthal) direction (of the dragon which had been set in motion), one knew (the direction) from which the earthquake (shock) had come (lit. where the earthquake was). When this was verified by the facts there was (found) an almost miraculous agreement (i.e. between the observations made with the apparatus and the news of what had actually happened). Nothing like this had ever been heard of before since the earliest records of the Shu (Jing).[32] ”
“ On one occasion one of the dragons let fall a ball from its mouth though no perceptible shock could be felt. All the scholars at the capital were astonished at this strange effect occurring without any evidence (of an earthquake to cause it). But several days later a messenger arrived bringing news of an earthquake in Long-Xi (Gansu) (Note: which was 400 miles away to the north-west). Upon this everyone admitted the mysterious power of the instrument. Thenceforward it became the duty of the officials of the Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar to record the directions from which earthquakes came.[33] ”

Furthermore, Zhang Heng's seismograph device incorporated the following in order to function properly:[34]

* Eight mobile arms radiating in as many directions and each connected with cranks which are provided with catch mechanisms at the periphery.
* Any one of the cranks which raises a dragon head and so releases a ball is thus at the same time caught and held, thus immobilising the instrument.
* A crank
* A right-angle lever for raising the dragon's head
* A vertical pin passing through a slot in the crank
* An arm of the pendulum
* The pendulum
* A catch
* A pivot on a projection
* A sling suspending the pendulum
* Attachment of the sling
* A horizontal bar supporting the pendulum
* The lower jaw of the dragon supporting the ball.

[edit] Named in his honour

* lunar crater Chang Heng
* asteroid 1802 Zhang Heng
* mineral Zhanghengite

He also features as a Great Engineer in the PC game Civilization IV.

[edit] See also

* Astronomy
* Seismology
* List of Chinese people
* List of Chinese writers
* List of scientists
* List of astronomers
* List of mechanical engineers

[edit] Notes
This article contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

1. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 85-86.
2. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 30.
3. ^ a b Wright, 66.
4. ^ a b Huang, 64.
5. ^ a b Zhang Heng's biography from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
6. ^ a b Lewis, 184.
7. ^ Lewis, 184-185.
8. ^ Lewis, 238.
9. ^ Declercq, 1-4.
10. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 42.
11. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 359.
12. ^ Wilson, 16.
13. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 414.
14. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 227.
15. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 30.
16. ^ a b Morton, 70.
17. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 343.
18. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 532.
19. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 355-356.
20. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 320.
21. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 483.
22. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 484.
23. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 632.
24. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 633.
25. ^ China's People's Daily Online.
26. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 281.
27. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 283.
28. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 40.
29. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 624.
30. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 625.
31. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 626.
32. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 3, 627.
33. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 627-628.
34. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 629.

[edit] References

* Declercq, Dominik (1998). Writings Against the State: Political Rhetorics in Third and Fourth Century China. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.
* Huang, Ray (1997). China: A Macro History. New York: An East Gate Book, M. E. SHARPE Inc.
* Lewis, Mark Edward (2006). The Construction of Space in Early China. New York: State University of New York Press.
* Morton, W. Scott and Charlton M. Lewis (2005). China: It's History and Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Wilson, Robin J. (2001). Stamping Through Mathematics. New York: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
* Wright, David Curtis (2001) The History of China. Westport: Greenwood Press.

[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Zhang Heng

* A Biography of Zhang Heng
* Science and its Times on Zhang Heng
* Asianresearch.org on Zhang Heng
* Zhang Heng at the University of Maine

Yi Xing

Yi Xing (Chinese: 一行; pinyin: Yī Xíng; Wade-Giles: I-Hsing, 683–727), born Zhang Sui (张遂), was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, mechanical engineer, and Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). His astronomical celestial globe was the first to feature a clockwork escapement mechanism, the first in a long tradition of Chinese astronomical clockworks.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Terrestrial-astronomical survey
* 2 The escapement and celestial globe
* 3 In his honor
* 4 See also
* 5 Notes
* 6 References
* 7 External links

[edit] Terrestrial-astronomical survey

In the early 8th century, the Tang court put Yi Xing in charge of a terrestrial-astronomical survey.[1] This survey had many purposes. It was established in order to obtain new astronomical data that would aid in the prediction of solar eclipses.[1] The survey was also initiated so that flaws in the calendar system could be corrected and a new, updated calendar installed in its place.[1] The survey was also essential in determining the measurement of the length of a portion of the meridian.[1] This would resolve the confusion created by the earlier practice of using the difference between shadow lengths of the sun observed at the same time at two places to determine the ground distance betweeen them.[1] This was the same process used by the ancient Greek Eratosthenes (276–196 BC).[1]

Yi Xing had thirteen test sites established throughout the empire, extending from Jiaozhou in Vietnam — at latitude 17°N — to the region immediately south of Lake Baikal — latitude 50°N.[2] There were three observations done for each site, one for the height of polaris, one for the shadow lengths of summer, and one for the shadow lengths of winter.[2] The latitudes were deciphered from this data, while the Tang calculation for the length of one degree of meridian was fairly accurate compared to modern calculations.[2] Yi Xing understood the variations in the length of a degree of meridian, and criticized earlier scholars who permanently fixed an estimate for shadow lengths for the duration of the entire year.[2]

[edit] The escapement and celestial globe

Yi Xing was famed for his genius, known to have calculated the number of possible positions on a go board game (though without a symbol for zero he had difficulties expressing the number). He, along with his associate Liang Lingzan (a government official), is best known for applying the earliest known escapement mechanism to a water-powered celestial globe. However, Yi Xing's mechanical genius and achievements were built upon the knowledge and efforts of previous Chinese mechanical engineers, such as the statesman and master of gear systems Zhang Heng (78–139) of the Han Dynasty, the equally brilliant engineer Ma Jun (200–265) of the Three Kingdoms, and the Daoist Li Lan (c. 450) of the Southern and Northern Dynasties period.

It was the earlier Chinese inventor Zhang Heng who was the first to apply hydraulic power (ie. a waterwheel and clepsydra) in mechanically-driving and rotating his equatorial armillary sphere). The arrangement followed the model of a water-wheel using the drip of a clepsydra (see water clock), which ultimately exerted force on a lug to rotate toothed-gears on a polar-axis shaft.[3] With this, the slow computational movement rotated the armillary sphere according to the recorded movements of the planets and stars. Yi Xing also owed much to the scholarly followers of Ma Jun, who had employed horizontal jack-wheels and other mechanical toys worked by waterwheels.[3] The Daoist Li Lan was an expert at working with water clocks, creating steelyard balances for weighing water that was used in the tank of the clepsydra,[3] providing more inspiration for Yi Xing. Like the earlier water-power employed by Zhang Heng and the later escapement mechanism in the astronomical clock tower engineered and erected by Su Song (1020–1101), Yi Xing's celestial globe employed water-power in order for it to rotate and function properly.[4] The historian Joseph Needham states (Wade-Giles spelling):

When the first escapement came, in +725 (AD), I-Hsing and Liang Ling-tsan arranged for two jacks to strike the hours, standing on the horizon surface of their sphere or globe.[5]

In this apparatus the constant-level tank of the clepsydra provided the major part of the chronometry delivering water or mercury into the scoops of a water-wheel. A minor part was provided by the adjustability of a steelyard or weighbridge which held up each scoop until it was full or nearly so. The essence of the new invention added by I-Hsing and Liang Ling-tsan in +725 (AD) was the parallel linkage device which constituted the ancestor of all escapements.[6]

In regards to mercury instead of water (as noted in the quote above), the first to apply liquid mercury for motive power of an armillary sphere was Zhang Sixun in 979 AD (because mercury would not freeze during winter).[7][8] During his age, the Song Dynasty (960–1279) era historical text of the Song Shi mentions Yi Xing and the reason why his armillary sphere did not survive the ages after the Tang Dynasty (Wade-Giles spelling):

A jade balancing mechanism (yu heng)(ie. the escapement) is erected behind (lit. outside) a curtain, holding and resisting (chhih o) the main scoops (shu tou). Water pours down rotating the wheel (chu shui chi lun). Lower, there is a cog-wheel (chi lun) with 43 (teeth). There are also hooks, pins, and interlocking rods one holding another (kou chien chiao tsho hsiang chhih). Each (wheel) moves the next without reliance on any human force. The fastest wheel turns round each day through 2928 teeth (chhih), the slowest one moves by 1 tooth in every 5 days. Such a great difference is there between the speed of the wheels, yet all of them depend on one single driving mechanism. In precision, the engine can be compared with Nature itself (lit. the maker of all things; tsao wu che). As for the rest, it is much the same as the apparatus made (long ago) by I-Hsing. But that old design employed mainly bronze and iron, which corroded and rusted so that the machine ceased to be able to move automatically. The modern plan substitutes hard wood for these parts, as beautiful as jade...[9]

Earlier Tang era historical texts of the 9th century have this to say of Yi Xing's work in astronomical instruments in the 8th century (Wade-Giles spelling):

One (of these) was made in the image of the round heavens (yuan thien chih hsiang) and on it were shown the lunar mansions (hsiu) in their order, the equator and the degrees of the heavenly circumference. Water, flowing (into scoops), turned a wheel automatically (chu shui chi lun, ling chhi tzu chuan), rotating it (the sphere) one complete revolution in one day and night. Besides this, there were two rings (lit. wheels) fitted round the celestial (sphere) outside, having the sun and moon threaded on them, and there were made to move in circling orbit (ling te yun hsing). Each day as the celestial (sphere) turned one revolution westwards, the sun made its way one degree eastwards, and the moon 13 and 7/19 degrees (eastwards). After 29 and a fraction rotations (of the celestial sphere) the sun and moon met. After it made 365 rotations the sun accomplished its complete circuit. And they made a wooden casing the surface of which represented the horizon, since the instrument was half sunk in it. This permitted the exact determinations of the times of dawns and dusks, full and new moons, tarrying and hurrying. Moreover there were two wooden jacks standing on the horizon surface, having one a bell and the other a drum in front of it, the bell being struck automatically to indicate the hours, and the drum being beaten automatically to indicate the quarters.[10]

All these motions were brought about (by machinery) within the casing, each depending on wheels and shafts (lun chu), hooks, pins and interlocking rods (kou chien chiao tsho), coupling devices and locks checking mutually (kuan so hsiang chhih)(ie. the escapement). Since (the clock) showed good agreement with the Tao of Heaven, everyone at that time praised its ingenuity. When it was all completed (in +725) it was called the 'Water-Driven Spherical Bird's-Eye-View Map of the Heavens (Shui Yun Hun Thien Fu Shih Thu) or 'Celestial Sphere Model Water-Engine' and was set up in front of the Wu Chheng Hall (of the Palace) to be seen by the multitude of officials. Candidates in the imperial examinations (in +730) were asked to write an essay on the new armillary (clock). But not very long afterwards the mechanism of bronze and iron began to corrode and rust, so that the instrument could no longer rotate automatically. It was therefore relegated to the (museum of the) College of All Sages (Chi Hsien Yuan) and went out of use.[11]

[edit] In his honor

At the Tiantai-Buddhist Guoqing Temple of Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang province, there is a Chinese pagoda erected directly outside of the temple, known as the Memorial Pagoda of Monk Yi Xing. His tomb is also located at Tiantai Mountain.

[edit] See also

* List of Chinese people
* List of inventors
* List of mechanical engineers
* Verge escapement
* Villard de Honnecourt

[edit] Notes

1. ^ a b c d e f Hsu, 98.
2. ^ a b c d Hsu, 99.
3. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 532.
4. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 470.
5. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 165.
6. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 319.
7. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 350.
8. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 471.
9. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 499.
10. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 473-474.
11. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 475.

[edit] References

* Hsu, Mei-ling. "The Qin Maps: A Clue to Later Chinese Cartographic Development," Imago Mundi (Volume 45, 1993): 90-100.
* Ju, Zan, "Yixing". Encyclopedia of China (Religion Edition), 1st ed.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 2. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.

[edit] External links

* Yi Xing at Chinaculture.org
* Yi Xing's Tomb Tiantai Mountain
* Yi Xing at the University of Maine

Nathaniel Wyeth

Nathaniel C. Wyeth (October 24, 1911 — July 6, 1990) was an American mechanical engineer and inventor. He is best known for creating a polyethylene terephthalate beverage container that could withstand the pressure of carbonated liquids. Made of recyclable PET plastic, lighter than glass and virtually unbreakable, Wyeth's invention is used widely today for both carbonated and non-carbonated drinks.

Born in Pennsylvania near Chadds Ford, he displayed an engineering talent throughout his youth. Wyeth held bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He married Caroline Pyle. They had six sons and a daughter but lost one son in a railway accident and the daughter who died very young. Caroline passed away in 1973. Wyeth married Jean Grady in 1984.

Wyeth joined DuPont in 1936 as a field engineer. By 1963 he was the company's first engineering fellow and when he retired in 1976, was DuPont's first senior engineering fellow, the company's highest technical position.

In 1967, he pondered whether soda could be stored in plastic bottles. After experimenting with a plastic detergent bottle that proved incapable of withstanding the forces of pressurized liquids, he realized that a much stronger material would be required. He initially experimented with polypropylene, but ultimately settled on polyethylene terephthalate as the material and received the patent in 1973.

Wyeth received the 1981 Society of Plastics Engineers international award for outstanding achievement, and was inducted into the Society of the Plastics Industry Hall of Fame in 1986. He was a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Wyeth's other innovations included improvements to manufacturing process, plastics, textiles, electronics and mechanical devices. He is also known as the brother of painters Andrew Wyeth and Henriette Wyeth Hurd, the father of musician Howard Wyeth, and as the son of artist and illustrator N. C. Wyeth.[1]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Fisk, Dean (August 5, 1998). FISKE-L: Re-Nicholas Wyeth / John Fiske & Sara Wyeth. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.

[edit] References

* MIT Inventor of the Week, Aug. 1998
* The New York Times (August 26, 1984). Nathaniel Wyeth Weds Jean Grady. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
* Fowler, Glenn (July 7, 1990). N. C. Wyeth, Inventor, Dies at 78; Developed the Plastic Soda Bottle. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
* Nathaniel C. Wyeth (Filed November 30, 1970, Issued May 15, 1973). US Patent 3733309 Biaxially Oriented Poly(ethy.ene terephthalate) Bottle, via Google.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.

[edit] External links
Engineering Portal
Biography Portal

* Nathaniel C. Wyeth at the "Plastics Academy Hall of Fame".
* Nathaniel C. Wyeth at the "Polymer Processing Hall of Fame".

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (in German pronounced [ˈluːtvɪç ˈjoːzɛf ˈjoːhan ˈvɪtgənʃtaɪn]) (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was a 20th century Austrian philosopher who contributed several significant ideas to philosophy, primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and especially the philosophy of language.[1] His influence has been wide-ranging, and is regarded by some as the most important philosopher since Immanuel Kant.[2]

Wittgenstein was born into a prestigious Austro-Hungarian family. Before his death at age 62,[3] the only book-length work Wittgenstein published was the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Philosophical Investigations, which Wittgenstein had worked on in his later years, was published shortly after he passed away. Both of these works have been regarded as highly prominent in the field of analytic philosophy and especially philosophy of language.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Life
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 World War I
+ 1.2.1 Developing the Tractatus
* 2 The "lost years": life after the Tractatus
o 2.1 Returning to Cambridge
o 2.2 Final years
* 3 Work
o 3.1 The Tractatus
o 3.2 Intermediate works
o 3.3 The Philosophical Investigations
o 3.4 Later work
o 3.5 Important publications
o 3.6 Works online
* 4 Influence
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes and references
* 7 Further reading
* 8 Works about Wittgenstein
* 9 External links

[edit] Life

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna on April 26, 1889, to Karl and Leopoldine Wittgenstein. He was the youngest of eight children, born into one of the most prominent and wealthy families in the Austro-Hungarian empire. His father's parents, Hermann Christian and Fanny Wittgenstein, were born into Jewish families but later converted to Protestantism, and after they moved from Saxony to Vienna in the 1850s, assimilated themselves into the Viennese Protestant professional classes. Ludwig's father, Karl Wittgenstein, became an industrialist and went on to make a fortune in iron and steel. Ludwig's mother Leopoldine, born Kalmus, was an aunt of the Nobel Prize laureate Friedrich von Hayek. Despite Karl's Protestantism, and the fact that Leopoldine's father was Jewish, the Wittgenstein children were baptized as Roman Catholics—the faith of their maternal grandmother—and Ludwig was given a Roman Catholic burial upon his death.[4]

[edit] Early life

Ludwig grew up in a household that provided an exceptionally intense environment for artistic and intellectual achievement. His parents were both very musical and all their children were artistically and intellectually educated. Karl Wittgenstein was a leading patron of the arts, and the Wittgenstein house hosted many figures of high culture — above all, musicians. The family was often visited by artists such as Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. Ludwig's older brother Paul Wittgenstein went on to become a world-famous concert pianist, even after losing his right arm in World War I. Ludwig himself had absolute pitch[5], and his devotion to music remained vitally important to him throughout his life: he made frequent use of musical examples and metaphors in his philosophical writings, and was said to be unusually adept at whistling lengthy and detailed musical passages. He also played the clarinet and is said to have remarked that he approved of this instrument because it took a proper role in the orchestra.
A boy who may be Wittgenstein and Hitler in a school photograph taken at the Linz Realschule in 1903.
A boy who may be Wittgenstein and Hitler in a school photograph taken at the Linz Realschule in 1903.

His family also had a history of intense self-criticism, to the point of depression and suicidal tendencies. Three of his four brothers committed suicide. The eldest of the brothers, Hans — an early musician who started composing at age four — killed himself in April 1902, in Havana, Cuba. The third son, Rudolf, followed in May 1904 in Berlin. Their brother Kurt shot himself at the end of World War I, in October 1918, when the Austrian troops he was commanding deserted en masse.[6]

Until 1903, Ludwig was educated at home; after that, he began three years of schooling at the Realschule in Linz, a school emphasizing technical topics. Adolf Hitler was a student there at the same time, when both boys were 14 or 15 years old.[7] Ludwig was interested in physics and wanted to study with Ludwig Boltzmann, whose collection of popular writings, including an inspiring essay about the hero and genius who would solve the problem of heavier-than-air flight ("On Aeronautics") was published during this time (1905).[8] Boltzmann committed suicide in 1906, however.[9]

In 1906, Wittgenstein began studying mechanical engineering in Berlin, and in 1908 he went to the Victoria University of Manchester to study for his doctorate in engineering, full of plans for aeronautical projects. He registered as a research student in an engineering laboratory, where he conducted research on the behaviour of kites in the upper atmosphere, and worked on the design of a propeller with small jet engines on the end of its blades. During his research in Manchester, he became interested in the foundations of mathematics, particularly after reading Bertrand Russell's Principles of Mathematics and Gottlob Frege's Grundgesetze. In the summer of 1911 Wittgenstein visited Frege and, after having corresponded with him for some time, was advised by Frege to attend the University of Cambridge to study under Russell.

In October 1911 Wittgenstein arrived unannounced at Russell's rooms in Trinity College and was soon attending his lectures and discussing philosophy with him at great length. He made a great impression on Russell and G. E. Moore and started to work on the foundations of logic and mathematical logic.

Russell was increasingly tired of philosophy and saw Wittgenstein as a successor who would carry on his work.[10] During this period Wittgenstein's other major interests were music and travelling, often in the company of David Pinsent, an undergraduate who became a firm friend. He was also invited to join the Cambridge Apostles, an elite secret society which Russell and Moore had both belonged to as students. Whilst in Cambridge Wittgenstein often liked to go to the cinema.

In 1913 Wittgenstein inherited a large fortune when his father died.[11] He donated some of it, initially anonymously, to Austrian artists and writers, including Rainer Maria Rilke and Georg Trakl. In 1914 he went to visit Trakl when the latter wanted to meet his benefactor, but Trakl died (an apparent suicide) days before Wittgenstein arrived.

Although he was invigorated by his study in Cambridge and his conversations with Russell, Wittgenstein came to feel that he could not get to the heart of his most fundamental questions while surrounded by other academics. In 1913 he retreated to the relative solitude of the remote village of Skjolden at the end of the Sognefjord in Norway.[12] Here he rented the second floor of a house and stayed for the winter. The isolation from academia allowed him to devote himself entirely to his work, and he later saw this period as one of the most passionate and productive times of his life. While there he wrote a book entitled Logik, a ground-breaking work in the foundations of logic which was the immediate predecessor and source of much of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

[edit] World War I

The outbreak of World War I in the next year took him completely by surprise, as he was living a secluded life at the time. He volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian army, first serving on a ship and then in an artillery workshop. In 1916 he was sent as a member of a howitzer regiment to the Russian front, where he won several medals for bravery, then in the southern Tyrol, where he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Italian army in November 1918.[12]

His notebook entries during the war reflect his contempt for the baseness, as he saw it, of his fellow soldiers. Throughout the war, Wittgenstein kept notebooks in which he frequently wrote philosophical and religious reflections alongside personal remarks. The notebooks reflect a profound change in his religious life: a militant atheist during his stint at Cambridge, Wittgenstein discovered Leo Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief at a bookshop in Galicia. He devoured Tolstoy's commentary and became an evangelist of sorts; he carried the book everywhere he went and recommended it to anyone in distress (to the point that he became known to his fellow soldiers as "the man with the gospels"). Although Monk notes that Wittgenstein began to doubt again by at least 1937, and that by the end of his life he said he could not believe Christian doctrines (although religious belief remained an important preoccupation), this is not contrary to the influence that Tolstoy had on his philosophy.[13] Wittgenstein's other religious influences include Saint Augustine, Fyodor Dostoevsky and, most notably, Søren Kierkegaard, whom Wittgenstein referred to as "a saint".[14]

[edit] Developing the Tractatus

Wittgenstein's work on Logik began to take on an ethical and religious significance. With this new concern with the ethical, combined with his earlier interest in logical analysis, and with key insights developed during the war (such as the so-called "picture theory" of propositions), Wittgenstein's work from Cambridge and Norway was transfigured into the material that eventually became the Tractatus. Towards the end of the war in 1918 Wittgenstein was promoted to reserve officer (lieutenant) and sent to northern Italy as part of an artillery regiment. On leave in the summer of 1918 he received a letter from David Pinsent's mother telling Wittgenstein that her son had been killed in an airplane accident. Suicidal, Wittgenstein went to stay with his uncle Paul, and completed the Tractatus, which he dedicated to Pinsent. In a letter to Mrs Pinsent Wittgenstein said "only in him did I find a real friend". The book was sent to publishers at this time, without success.

In October, Wittgenstein returned to the Italian front but was captured by the Italians shortly thereafter. While he was a prisoner of war, through the intervention of his Cambridge friends Russell, Keynes, and Pinsent, who had corresponded with him throughout the war via Switzerland, Wittgenstein managed to get access to books, prepare his manuscript, and send it back to England. Russell recognized it as a work of supreme philosophical importance and worked with Wittgenstein to get it published after his release in 1919. An English translation was prepared, first by Frank P. Ramsey and then by C. K. Ogden, with Wittgenstein's involvement. After some discussion of how best to translate the title, G. E. Moore suggested Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, an allusion to Baruch Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Russell wrote an introduction,[15] lending the book his reputation as one of the foremost philosophers in the world.

However, difficulties remained. Wittgenstein had become personally disaffected with Russell and was displeased with Russell's introduction, which he thought evinced fundamental misunderstanding of the Tractatus. Wittgenstein grew frustrated as interested publishers proved difficult to find. To add insult to injury those publishers who were interested proved to be so mainly because of Russell's introduction. Finally Wilhelm Ostwald's journal Annalen der Naturphilosophie printed a German edition in 1921, and Routledge's Kegan Paul printed a bilingual edition with Russell's introduction and the Ramsey-Ogden translation in 1922.

[edit] The "lost years": life after the Tractatus

By then Wittgenstein was a profoundly changed man. He had embraced the Christianity that he had previously opposed, faced harrowing combat in World War I, and crystallized his intellectual and emotional upheavals with the exhausting composition of the Tractatus. It was a work which transfigured all of his past work on logic into a radically new framework that he believed offered a definitive solution to all the problems of philosophy. These changes in Wittgenstein's inner and outer life left him both haunted and yet invigorated to follow a new, ascetic life. One of the most dramatic expressions of this change was his decision in 1919 to give away his portion of the family fortune that he had inherited when his father had died. The money was divided between his sisters Helene and Hermine and his brother Paul, and Wittgenstein insisted that they promise never to give it back. He felt that giving money to the poor could only corrupt them further, whereas the rich would not be harmed by it.

Since Wittgenstein thought that the Tractatus had solved all the problems of philosophy, he left philosophy and returned to Austria to train as a primary school teacher. He was educated in the methods of the Austrian School Reform Movement which advocated the stimulation of the natural curiosity of children and their development as independent thinkers, instead of just letting them memorize facts. Wittgenstein was enthusiastic about these ideas but ran into problems when he was appointed as an elementary teacher in the rural Austrian villages of Trattenbach, Puchberg-am-Schneeberg, and Otterthal. During his time as a schoolteacher Wittgenstein wrote a pronunciation and spelling dictionary for his own use in teaching students; it was published and well received by his colleagues.[16] This would be the only book besides the Tractatus that Wittgenstein published in his lifetime.

Wittgenstein had unrealistic expectations of the rural children he taught, and his teaching methods were intense and exacting — he had little patience with those children who had no aptitude for mathematics. However, he achieved good results with children attuned to his interests and style of teaching, especially boys. His severe disciplinary methods (often involving corporal punishment, not unusual at the time) — as well as a general suspicion amongst the villagers that he was somewhat mad — led to a long series of bitter disagreements with some of his students' parents, and eventually culminated in April 1926 in the collapse of an eleven year old boy whom Wittgenstein had struck on the head. The boy's father attempted to have Wittgenstein arrested, and despite being cleared of misconduct he resigned his position and returned to Vienna, feeling that he had failed as a school teacher.

After abandoning his work as a school teacher, Wittgenstein worked as a gardener's assistant in a monastery near Vienna. He considered becoming a monk, and went so far as to inquire about the requirements for joining an order. However, at the interview he was advised that he would not find in monastic life what he sought.

Two major developments helped to save Wittgenstein from this despairing state. The first was an invitation from his sister Margaret ("Gretl") Stonborough (who was painted by Gustav Klimt in 1905) to work on the design and construction of her new house. He worked with the architect, Paul Engelmann, who had become a close friend of Wittgenstein's during the war, and the two designed a spare modernist house after the style of Adolf Loos (whom they both greatly admired). Wittgenstein found the work intellectually absorbing, and exhausting — he poured himself into the design in painstaking detail, including even small aspects such as doorknobs and radiators (which had to be exactly positioned to maintain the symmetry of the rooms). As a work of modernist architecture the house evoked some high praise; G. H. von Wright said that it possessed the same "static beauty" as the Tractatus. The effort of totally involving himself in intellectual work once again did much to restore Wittgenstein's spirits.

Secondly, toward the end of his work on the house, Wittgenstein was contacted by Moritz Schlick, one of the leading figures of the newly formed Vienna Circle. The Tractatus had been tremendously influential to the development of the Vienna positivism and, although Schlick never succeeded in drawing Wittgenstein into the discussions of the Vienna Circle itself, he and some of his fellow circle members, especially Friedrich Waismann, met occasionally with Wittgenstein to discuss philosophical topics.[17] Wittgenstein was frequently frustrated by these meetings — he believed that Schlick and his colleagues had fundamentally misunderstood the Tractatus, and at times would refuse to talk about it at all. (Much of the disagreements concerned the importance of religious life and the mystical; Wittgenstein considered these matters of a sort of wordless faith, whereas the positivists disdained them as useless. In one meeting Wittgenstein refused to discuss the Tractatus at all, and sat with his back to his guests while he read aloud from the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore.) Nevertheless, the contact with the Vienna Circle stimulated Wittgenstein intellectually and revived his interest in philosophy. He also met with Frank P. Ramsey, a young philosopher of mathematics who traveled several times from Cambridge to Austria to meet with Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In the course of his conversations with the Vienna Circle and with Ramsey, Wittgenstein began to think that there might be some "grave mistakes" in his work as presented in the Tractatus — marking the beginning of a second career of ground-breaking philosophical work, which would occupy him for the rest of his life.

[edit] Returning to Cambridge

In 1929 he decided, at the urging of Ramsey and others, to return to Cambridge. He was met at the railway station by a crowd of England's greatest intellectuals, discovering rather to his horror that he was one of the most famed philosophers in the world. In a letter to his wife, Lydia Lopokova, John Maynard Keynes wrote: "Well, God has arrived. I met him on the 5.15 train."

Despite this fame he could not initially work at Cambridge as he did not have a degree, so he applied as an advanced undergraduate. Russell noted that his previous residency was in fact sufficient for a doctoral degree, and urged him to offer the Tractatus as a doctoral thesis, which he did in 1929. It was examined by Russell and Moore; at the end of the thesis defence, Wittgenstein clapped the two examiners on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I know you'll never understand it."[18] Moore commented in the examiner's report: "In my opinion this is a work of genius; it is, in any case, up to the standards of a degree from Cambridge." Wittgenstein was appointed as a lecturer and was made a fellow of Trinity College.

Although Wittgenstein was involved in a relationship with Marguerite Respinger (a young Swiss woman he had met as a friend of the family), his plans to marry her were broken off in 1931 and he never married. Most of his romantic attachments were to young men. There is considerable debate over how active Wittgenstein's homosexual life was, inspired by W. W. Bartley's claim to have found evidence of not only active homosexuality but in particular several casual liaisons with young men in the Wiener Prater park during his time in Vienna. Bartley published his claims in a biography of Wittgenstein in 1973, claiming to have his information from "confidential reports from... friends" of Wittgenstein,[19] whom he declined to name, and to have discovered two coded notebooks unknown to Wittgenstein's executors that detailed the visits to the Prater. Wittgenstein's estate and other biographers have disputed Bartley's claims and asked him to produce the sources that he claims. What has become clear, at least, is that Wittgenstein had several long-term homoerotic attachments, including an infatuation with his friend David Pinsent and long-term relationships during his years in Cambridge with Francis Skinner and possibly Ben Richards.

Wittgenstein's political sympathies lay on the left, and while he was opposed to Marxist theory, he described himself as a "communist at heart" and romanticized the life of labourers.[20] In 1934, attracted by Keynes' description of Soviet life in Short View of Russia, he conceived the idea of emigrating to the Soviet Union with Skinner. They took lessons in Russian and in 1935 Wittgenstein traveled to Leningrad and Moscow in an attempt to secure employment. He was offered teaching positions but preferred manual work and returned three weeks later.

From 1936 to 1937 Wittgenstein lived again in Norway,[21] leaving Skinner behind. He worked on the Philosophical Investigations. In the winter of 1936/37, he delivered a series of "confessions" to close friends, most of them about minor infractions like white lies, in an effort to cleanse himself. In 1938 he traveled to Ireland to visit Maurice Drury, a friend who was training as a doctor, and considered such training himself, with the intention of abandoning philosophy for psychiatry. The visit to Ireland was at the same time a response to the invitation of the then Irish Prime Minister, Eamon de Valera, himself a mathematics teacher. De Valera hoped that Wittgenstein's presence would contribute to an academy for advanced mathematics. Whilst staying in Ireland, Wittgenstein resided at the Ashling hotel, now commemorated by a plaque in his honour.

While he was in Ireland, Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss; the Viennese Wittgenstein was now a citizen of the enlarged Germany and a Jew under its racial laws. He found this intolerable and started to investigate the possibilities of acquiring British or Irish citizenship with the help of Keynes, but this put his siblings Hermine, Helene and Paul, all still living in Austria, in considerable danger. Wittgenstein's first thought was to travel to Vienna, but he was dissuaded by friends. Had the Wittgensteins been classified as Jews their fate would have been the same as other Austrian Jews, only a minority of whom survived the war[22]. Their only hope was to be classified as Mischlinge: Aryan/Jewish crossbreeds, whose treatment, while harsh, was less brutal than that reserved for Jews. This reclassification was known as a "Befreiung". The successful conclusion of these negotiations required the personal approval of Adolf Hitler. "The figures show how difficult it was to gain a Befreiung. In 1939 there were 2,100 applications for a different racial classification: the Führer allowed only twelve."[23]

Gretl, an American citizen by marriage, started negotiations with the Nazi authorities over the racial status of their grandfather Hermann, claiming that he was the illegitimate son of an "Aryan". The Reichsbank was keen to get its hands on the large amounts of foreign currency owned by the Wittgenstein family, and this was used as a bargaining tool. Paul, who had escaped to Switzerland and then the United States in July 1938, disagreed with the family's stance.

After G. E. Moore's resignation in 1939 Wittgenstein, who was by then considered a philosophical genius, was appointed to the chair in Philosophy at Cambridge. He acquired British citizenship soon afterwards, and in July 1939 he traveled to Vienna to assist Gretl and his other sisters, visiting Berlin for one day to meet with an official of the Reichsbank. After this, he traveled to New York to persuade Paul, whose agreement was required, to back the scheme. The required Befreiung was granted in August 1939. The amount signed over to the Nazis by the Wittgenstein family, a week or so before the outbreak of war, was 1.7 tonnes of gold. At 2007 prices (US$687 per ounce), this amount of gold would be worth over US$37 million.

After exhausting philosophical work Wittgenstein would often relax by watching a western movie, where he preferred to sit at the very front of the cinema, or reading detective stories.[24] These tastes are in stark contrast to his preferences in music, where he rejected anything after Brahms as a symptom of the decay of society.

By this time Wittgenstein's view on the foundations of mathematics had changed considerably. Earlier he had thought that logic could provide a solid foundation, and he had even considered updating Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica. Now he denied that there were any mathematical facts to be discovered and he denied that mathematical statements were "true" in any real sense: they simply expressed the conventional established meanings of certain symbols. He also denied that a contradiction should count as a fatal flaw of a mathematical system. He gave a series of lectures on the foundations of mathematics discussing this and other topics, documented in a book.[25] The book contains lectures by Wittgenstein as well as discussions between Wittgenstein and several attending students including young Alan Turing.

During World War II he left Cambridge and volunteered as a hospital porter in Guy's Hospital in London and as a laboratory assistant in Newcastle upon Tyne's Royal Victoria Infirmary. This was arranged by his friend John Ryle, a brother of the philosopher Gilbert Ryle, who was then working at the hospital. After the war, Wittgenstein returned to teach at Cambridge, but he found teaching an increasing burden: he had never liked the intellectual atmosphere at Cambridge, and in fact encouraged several of his students, including Skinner, to find work outside of academic philosophy. There are stories, perhaps apocryphal, that if any of his philosophy students expressed an interest in pursuing the subject, he would ban them from attending any more of his classes.

[edit] Final years
"Today there were 18 1p coins on the grave of Ludwig Wittgenstein at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. Originally — some days ago — there were four, spread about; and then five in a little pile to one side. This morning there were 15 neatly underlining his name. Now there are three more, still neatly lined up. Over the years numerous small objects have been placed on the grave including a lemon, a pork pie, a Mr Kipling cupcake and a Buddhist prayer wheel. It is all very intriguing." (Letter to the editor from Nick Ingham, The Times, September 3, 2001)
"Today there were 18 1p coins on the grave of Ludwig Wittgenstein at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. Originally — some days ago — there were four, spread about; and then five in a little pile to one side. This morning there were 15 neatly underlining his name. Now there are three more, still neatly lined up. Over the years numerous small objects have been placed on the grave including a lemon, a pork pie, a Mr Kipling cupcake and a Buddhist prayer wheel. It is all very intriguing." (Letter to the editor from Nick Ingham, The Times, September 3, 2001)

Wittgenstein resigned his position at Cambridge in 1947 to concentrate on his writing. He was succeeded as professor by his friend Georg Henrik von Wright. He stayed at Kilpatrick House guesthouse in East Wicklow in 1947 and 1948. Much of his later work was done on the west coast of Ireland in the rural isolation he preferred. By 1949, when he was diagnosed as having prostate cancer, he had written most of the material that would be published after his death as Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations), which arguably contains his most important work.

He spent the last two years of his life working in Vienna, the United States, Oxford, and Cambridge. He worked continuously on new material, inspired by the conversations that he had had with his friend and former student Norman Malcolm during a long vacation at the Malcolms' house in the United States. Malcolm had been wrestling with G.E. Moore's common sense response to external world skepticism ("Here is one hand, and here is another; therefore I know at least two external things exist"). Wittgenstein began to work on another series of remarks inspired by his conversations, which he continued to work on until two days before his death, and which were published posthumously as On Certainty.

The only known fragment of music composed by Wittgenstein was premiered in November 2003. It is a piece of music that lasts less than half a minute.

Wittgenstein died from prostate cancer at the home of Dr. Bevan, his doctor, in Cambridge in 1951. His last words were: "Tell them I've had a wonderful life".

[edit] Work

Although many of Wittgenstein's notebooks, papers, and lectures have been published since his death, he published only one philosophical book in his lifetime, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1921. Wittgenstein's early work was deeply influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer, and by the new systems of logic put forward by Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege. He was also influenced by the ideas of Immanuel Kant, especially in relation to transcendentality. When the Tractatus was published, it was taken up as a major influence by the Vienna Circle positivists. However, Wittgenstein did not consider himself part of that school and alleged that logical positivism involved grave misunderstandings of the Tractatus.

With the completion of the Tractatus Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the problems of philosophy and he abandoned his studies, working as a schoolteacher, a gardener at a monastery, and as an architect, along with Paul Engelmann, on his sister's new house in Vienna. However, in 1929, he returned to Cambridge, where he was awarded a Ph.D. for the Tractatus and took a teaching position. He renounced or revised much of his earlier work, and his development of a new philosophical method and a new understanding of language culminated in his second magnum opus, the Philosophical Investigations, which was published posthumously.

[edit] The Tractatus

Main article: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

In rough order, the first half of the book sets forth the following theses:

* The world consists of independent atomic facts — existing states of affairs — out of which larger facts are built.
* Language consists of atomic, and then larger-scale propositions that correspond to these facts by sharing the same "logical form".
* Thought, expressed in language, "pictures" these facts.
* We can analyse our thoughts and sentences to express ("express" as in show, not say) their true logical form.
* Those we cannot so analyze, cannot be meaningfully discussed.
* Philosophy consists of no more than this form of analysis: "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen" ("Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent").

Some commentators believe that, although no other type of discourse is, properly speaking, philosophy, Wittgenstein does imply that those things to be passed over "in silence" may be important or useful,[26] according to some of his more cryptic propositions in the last sections of the Tractatus; indeed, that they may be the most important and most useful. He himself wrote about the Tractatus in a letter to his publisher Ficker:
“ …the point of the book is ethical. I once wanted to give a few words in the foreword which now actually are not in it, which, however, I’ll write to you now because they might be a key for you: I wanted to write that my work consists of two parts: of the one which is here, and of everything I have not written. And precisely this second part is the important one. For the Ethical is delimited from within, as it were by my book; and I’m convinced that, strictly speaking, it can ONLY be delimited in this way. In brief, I think: All of that which many are babbling I have defined in my book by remaining silent about it. ”

—Wittgenstein, Letter to Ludwig von Ficker, October or November 1919, translated by Ray Monk


Other commentators point out that the sentences of the Tractatus would not qualify as meaningful according to its own rigid criteria, and that Wittgenstein's method in the book does not follow its own demands regarding the only strictly correct philosophical method.[27] This also is admitted by Wittgenstein, when he writes in proposition 6.54: ‘My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless’. These commentators believe that the book is deeply ironic, and that it demonstrates the ultimate nonsensicality of any sentence attempting to say something metaphysical, something about those fixations of metaphysical philosophers, about those things that must be passed over in silence, and about logic. He attempts to define the limits of logic in understanding the world.

The work also contains several innovations in logic, including a version of the truth table.

[edit] Intermediate works

Wittgenstein wrote copiously after his return to Cambridge, and arranged much of his writing into an array of incomplete manuscripts. Some thirty thousand pages existed at the time of his death. Much, but by no means all, of this has been sorted and released in several volumes.[28] During his "middle work" in the 1920s and 1930s, much of his work involved attacks from various angles on the sort of philosophical perfectionism embodied in the Tractatus. Of this work, Wittgenstein published only a single paper, "Remarks on Logical Form," which was submitted to be read for the Aristotelian Society and published in their proceedings. By the time of the conference, however, Wittgenstein had repudiated the essay as worthless, and gave a talk on the concept of infinity instead. Wittgenstein was increasingly frustrated to find that, although he was not yet ready to publish his work, some other philosophers were beginning to publish essays containing inaccurate presentations of his own views based on their conversations with him. As a result, he published a very brief letter to the journal Mind, taking a recent article by R. B. Braithwaite as a case in point, and asked philosophers to hold off writing about his views until he was himself ready to publish them. Although unpublished, the Blue Book, a set of notes dictated to his class at Cambridge in 1933 – 1934 contains seeds of Wittgenstein's later thoughts on language (later developed in the Investigations), and is widely read today as a turning point in his philosophy of language.

[edit] The Philosophical Investigations

Main article: Philosophical Investigations

Along side the Tractatus Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (Philosophische Untersuchungen) was one of his two major works. In 1953, two years after Wittgenstein's death, the long-awaited book was published in two parts. Most of the 693 numbered paragraphs in Part I were ready for printing in 1946, but Wittgenstein withdrew the manuscript from the publisher. The shorter Part II was added by the editors, G.E.M. Anscombe and Rush Rhees.

It is notoriously difficult to find consensus among interpreters of Wittgenstein's work, and this is particularly true in the case of the Investigations. Very briefly, Wittgenstein asks the reader to think of language and its uses as a multiplicity[29] of language-games within which the parts of language function, and have meaning, and this understanding will help to dissolve the problems of philosophy. This view of language represents what many consider a break from the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus and, therefore, 'meaning as representation'. In the carrying out of such an investigation, one of the most radical characteristics of the "later" Wittgenstein comes to light. The "conventional" view of philosophy's "task", perhaps coming to a head in Bertrand Russell, is that the philosopher's task is to solve the seemingly intractable problems of philosophy using logical analysis (for example, the problem of "free will", the relationship between "mind" and "matter", what is "the good" or "the beautiful" and so on). However, Wittgenstein argues that these "problems" are, in fact, "bewitchments" that arise from the philosophers' misuse of language.

On Wittgenstein's account, language is inextricably woven into the fabric of life, and as part of that fabric it works relatively unproblematically. Philosophical problems arise, on this account, when language is forced from its proper home and into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are absent. Removed, perhaps, for what appear to be sound philosophical reasons, but which leads, for Wittgenstein, to the source of the problem. Wittgenstein describes this metaphysical environment as like being on frictionless ice:[30] where the conditions are apparently perfect for a philosophically and logically perfect language (the language of the Tractatus), where all philosophical problems can be solved without the confusing and muddying effects of everyday contexts; but where, just because of the lack of friction, language can in fact do no actual work at all. There is much talk in the Investigations, then, of “idle wheels” and language being “on holiday” or a mere "ornament", all of which are used to express the idea of what is lacking in philosophical contexts. To resolve the problems encountered there, Wittgenstein argues that philosophers must leave the frictionless ice and return to the “rough ground” of ordinary language in use; that is, philosophers must “bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.”

In this regard, one can see affinities between Wittgenstein and Kant.[31] In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant argues that when concepts grounded in experience are applied outside of the range of possible experience, the result is contradictions and confusion. Thus the second part of the Critique consists of refutations, typically by reductio ad absurdum, of logical proofs of the existence of God and the existence of souls, and attacks on strong notions of infinity and necessity. In this way, Wittgenstein's objections to applying words outside the contexts in which they have an established meaning mirror Kant's objections to the non-empirical use of empirical reason.

Returning to the rough ground of ordinary uses of words is, however, easier said than done. Philosophical problems have the character of depth and run as deep as the forms of language and thought that set philosophers on the road to confusion. Wittgenstein therefore speaks of “illusions”, "bewitchment" and “conjuring tricks” performed on our thinking by our forms of language, and tries to break their spell by attending to differences between superficially similar aspects of language which he feels leads to this type of confusion. For much of the Investigations, then, Wittgenstein tries to show how philosophers are led away from the ordinary world of language in use by misleading aspects of language itself. He does this by looking in turn at the role language plays in the development of various philosophical problems, from some general problems involving language itself, then at the notions of rules and rule following, and then on to some more specific problems in philosophy of mind. Throughout these investigations, the style of writing is conversational with Wittgenstein in turn taking the role of the puzzled philosopher (on either or both sides of traditional philosophical debates), and that of the guide attempting to show the puzzled philosopher the way back: the “way out of the fly bottle.”

Much of the Investigations, then, consists of examples of how philosophical confusion is generated and how, by a close examination of the actual workings of everyday language, the first false steps towards philosophical puzzlement can be avoided. By avoiding these first false steps, philosophical problems themselves simply no longer arise and are therefore dissolved rather than solved. As Wittgenstein puts it; "the clarity we are aiming at is indeed complete clarity. But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear."

[edit] Later work

* On Certainty — A collection of aphorisms discussing the relation between knowledge and certainty, extremely influential in the philosophy of action.
* Remarks on Colour — Remarks on Goethe's Theory of Colours.
* Culture and Value — A collection of personal remarks about various cultural issues, such as religion and music, as well as critique of Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy.
* Zettel, another collection of Wittgenstein's thoughts in fragmentary/"diary entry" format as with On Certainty and Culture and Value.

[edit] Important publications

* Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung, Annalen der Naturphilosophie, 14 (1921)
o Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by C.K. Ogden (1922)
* Philosophische Untersuchungen (1953)
o Philosophical Investigations, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe (1953)
* Bemerkungen über die Grundlagen der Mathematik, ed. by G.H. von Wright, R. Rhees, and G.E.M. Anscombe (1956) (a selection from his writings on the philosophy of logic and mathematics between 1937 and 1944)
o Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe, rev. ed. (1978)
* Bemerkungen über die Philosophie der Psychologie, ed. G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright (1980)
o Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Vols. 1 and 2, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe, ed. G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright (1980) (a selection of which makes up 'Zettel')
* The Blue and Brown Books (1958) (Notes dictated in English to Cambridge students in 1933–35)
* Philosophische Bemerkungen, ed. by Rush Rhees (1964)
o Philosophical Remarks (1975)
o Philosophical Grammar (1978)
* Bemerkungen über die Farben, ed. by G.E.M. Anscombe (1977)
o Remarks on Colour ISBN 0-520-03727-8

[edit] Works online

* Review of P. Coffey's Science of Logic (1913): a polemical book review, written in 1912 for the March 1913 issue of the The Cambridge Review when Wittgenstein was an undergraduate studying with Russell. The review is the earliest public record of Wittgenstein's philosophical views.
* Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922/1923), German text and Ogden-Ramsey translation
* Works by Ludwig Wittgenstein at Project Gutenberg
* Cambridge (1932–3) lecture notes
* Lecture on Ethics
* (A Few) Remarks

[edit] Influence

Both his early and later work have been major influences in the development of analytic philosophy. Former students and colleagues include Gilbert Ryle, Friedrich Waismann, Norman Malcolm, G. E. M. Anscombe, Rush Rhees, Georg Henrik von Wright and Peter Geach.

Contemporary philosophers heavily influenced by him include Michael Dummett,[32] Donald Davidson,[33] P.M.S. Hacker,[34] John R. Searle, Saul Kripke, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam, Anthony Quinton, Peter Strawson, Paul Horwich, Colin McGinn, Daniel Dennett, Richard Rorty, D. Z. Phillips, Stanley Cavell, Cora Diamond, James F. Conant, and Jean-François Lyotard.

With others, Conant, Diamond and Cavell have been associated with an interpretation of Wittgenstein sometimes known as the New Wittgenstein.

However, it cannot really be said that Wittgenstein founded a 'school' in any normal sense. The views of most of the above are generally contradictory. Indeed there are strong strains in his writings from the Tractatus onwards which would probably have regarded any such enterprise as fundamentally misguided.

Wittgenstein has also had a significant influence on psychology and psychotherapy. Most significantly, social therapy has made use of Wittgenstein's language games as a tool for emotional growth. Psychologists and psychotherapist inspired by Wittgenstein's work include Fred Newman, Lois Holzman, Brian J. Mistler, and John Morss.

Wittgenstein's influence has extended beyond what is normally considered philosophy and may be found in various areas of the arts. A recent example is Steve Reich's "You are", one of the movements of which is taken from On Certainty: "Explanations come to an end somewhere". Since Reich was at one time a philosophy student, publishing a thesis on Wittgenstein, this may be considered a legitimate use. Additionally, interdisciplinary research on language and information theory by various members of the Domon Group have drawn heavily on Wittgenstein's Tractatus as well as unpublished works.

[edit] See also

* Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
* Philosophical Investigations
* Bertrand Russell
* Karl Popper
* Paul Feyerabend
* Truth table - Wittgenstein and Emil Leon Post are often both independently credited with their introduction in their current form
* List of Austrian scientists

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Time 100: Scientists and Thinkers. Time Magazine Online. Retrieved on April 29, 2006.
2. ^ http://www.iep.utm.edu/w/wittgens.htm
3. ^ Give Him Genius or Give Him Death. Article by Anthony Kenny, New York Times
4. ^ http://www.iep.utm.edu/w/wittgens.htm
5. ^ Edmonds, Eidinow, "Wittgenstein's Poker"
6. ^ Bartley, Wittgenstein, 34–5.
7. ^ It is a matter of controversy whether Hitler and Wittgenstein knew each other personally, and if so whether either had any memory of the other. The teacher whom Hitler commends in Mein Kampf for teaching him German history and making him into a fanatical German nationalist, one Dr Leopold Poetsch, also took Wittgenstein's class on overnight excursions. Some school records with this and other items of information concerning Wittgenstein, have been posted on the University of Passau website [1]. These include references to the texts studied by Wittgenstein as a student.
8. ^ Sterrett, p. 75
9. ^ Ludwig Boltzmann, biography from Corrosion Doctors
10. ^ Russell and Wittgenstein: A Study in Civility and Arrogance, article by Justin Leiber
11. ^ http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~fgati/chapter17.html
12. ^ a b Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, biography by J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson
13. ^ Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, pp. 44, 116, 382–84
14. ^ Creegan, Charles. Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard. Routledge. Retrieved on April 23, 2006.
15. ^ Introduction by Bertrand Russell
16. ^ Philosopher's rare 'other book' goes on sale. Guardian. Retrieved on April 29, 2006.
17. ^ Vienna Circle, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
18. ^ Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, p. 271
19. ^ Bartley, p. 160
20. ^ Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, p. 343
21. ^ Ludwig Wittgenstein: Return to Cambridge from the Cambridge Wittgenstein Archive
22. ^ Jews in Linz. Retrieved on April 29, 2006.
23. ^ Edmonds and Eidinow, pp. 98, 105
24. ^ Hard-boiled Wit: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Norbert Davis, by Josef Hoffmann
25. ^ Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1989-10-15), Diamond, Cora, ed., Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, University Of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226904261
26. ^ Realistic spirit: Wittgenstein, philosophy, and the mind by Cora Diamond, p. 181
27. ^ The Good Sense of Nonsense: a reading of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus as nonself-repudiating by Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, The Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2007
28. ^ The Manuscripts, from the Wittgenstein Archive in Cambridge
29. ^ Philosophical Investigations, §23.
30. ^ Philosophical Investigations, §107.
31. ^ Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations: Critical Essays by Meredith Williams
32. ^ Michael Dummett, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
33. ^ Actions, Reasons, and Causes, by Donald Davidson, a response to the Wittgensteinian views on rationalization
34. ^ Wittgenstein meets Neuroscience, book review by Axel Kohler

[edit] Further reading

* Bartley, William Warren (1985). Wittgenstein. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court. ISBN 978-0875484419.
* Brockhaus, Richard R. (1990). Pulling Up the Ladder: The Metaphysical Roots of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court. ISBN 978-0812691252. Explores the continental influences on Wittgenstein, often overlooked by more traditional analytic works.
* Drury, Maurice O'Connor (1973). The Danger of Words and Writings on Wittgenstein. Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 1-85506-490-1. A collection of Drury's writings concerning Wittgenstein, edited and introduced by David Berman, Michael Fitzgerald and John Hayes.
* Edmonds, David; Eidinow, John (2001). Wittgenstein's Poker. New York: Ecco. A review of the origin of the conflict between Karl Popper and Wittgenstein, focused on events leading up to their volatile first encounter at 1946 Cambridge meeting.
* Fonteneau, Françoise : L’éthique du silence. Wittgenstein et Lacan. Paris: Seuil. 1999
* Glock, Hans-Johann (1996). A Wittgenstein Dictionary. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Reference. ISBN 0-631-18112-1.
* Grayling, A. C. (2001). Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285411-9. An introduction aimed at the non-specialist reader.

* Guetti, James (1993). Wittgenstein and the Grammar of Literary Experience. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1496-X.

* Hacker, P. M. S. (1986). Insight and Illusion: Themes in the Philosophy of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824783-4.
* Hacker, P. M. S. (1996). Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Reference. ISBN 0-631-20098-3. An analysis of the relationship between Wittgenstein's thought and that of Frege, Russell, and the Vienna Circle.
* Harré, Rom; Tissaw, Michael A. (2005). Wittgenstein and Psychology: A Practical Guide. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. Looks at practical uses of Wittgenstein's later theories in a hands-on psychological context.
* Kitching, Gavin (2003). Wittgenstein and Society: Essays in Conceptual Puzzlement. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-3342-X.
* Leitner, Bernhard (1973). The Architecture of Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Documentation. Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. ISBN 0-919616-00-3.
* Malcolm, Norman (1958). Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir. London, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924759-5. A portrait by someone who knew Wittgenstein well.
* McGuiness, Brian (1988). Young Ludwig: Wittgenstein's Life, 1889–1921. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-927994-2.
* Monk, Ray (2005). How To Read Wittgenstein. New York: Norton. ISBN 1-86207-724-X. Using key texts from Wittgenstein's writings the author gives insight into how his philosophy can be interpreted.
* Monk, Ray (1990). Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. New York: Free Press, Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 0-14-015995-9. A biography that also attempts to explain his philosophy.
* Schulte, Joachim; trans. William H. Brenner and John F. Holley (1992). Wittgenstein: An Introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-1082-X. A concise introduction to Wittgenstein's philosophy illuminated with passages from his work.
* Sterrett, Susan G. (2005). Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World. New York: Pi Press. ISBN 0-13-149997-1. Accessible study of early years up to writing of Tractatus, interweaving history of flight, science and technology with logic and philosophy.

For an in-depth exegesis of Wittgenstein's later work, see the 4-volume analytical commentary by P.M.S. Hacker, volumes 1 and 2 co-authored with G. P. Baker:

1. (1980) Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning. ISBN 0-631-12111-0.
2. (1985) Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar, and Necessity. ISBN 0-631-13024-1.
3. (1990) Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind. ISBN 0-631-18739-1.
4. (1996) Wittgenstein: Mind and Will. ISBN 0-631-18739-1.

[edit] Works about Wittgenstein

* The Jew of Linz, by Kimberley Cornish, puts forward the controversial thesis that Hitler's antisemitism arose from his dislike of Wittgenstein, and that Wittgenstein was a Soviet agent who recruited the "Cambridge Five".
* E. L. Doctorow imagines a rivalry between Wittgenstein and Einstein in sections of his novel City of God, narrated as Wittgenstein.
* Avant-garde filmmaker Derek Jarman directed a film entitled Wittgenstein in 1993. The script and the original treatment by Terry Eagleton have been published as a book by the British Film Institute.
* For an extensive account of Wittgenstein's design of the house for his sister in Vienna see the book Ludwig Wittgenstein, Architect by Paul Wijdeveld, MIT Press, 1994. For a discussion of the connection between Wittgenstein's architecture and his philosophy see Kari Jormakka, "The Fifth Wittgenstein", Datutop 24, 2004.
* The life of Wittgenstein has been recreated in a novel, The World as I Found It by Bruce Duffy (1987).
* The famous 10 minute meeting between Wittgenstein and Karl Popper has been described in the book Wittgenstein's Poker. The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers, by David Edmonds and John Eidenow (2002) a book length treatment of a famous incident that occurred on October 25, 1946, Ecco. 2002 ISBN 0-06-093664-9 .
* Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein, edited by Naomi Scheman and Peg O'Connor, offers a look at Wittgenstein's philosophies through a feminist perspective. ISBN 0-271-02198-5
* Oppression and Responsibility by Peg O'Connor is considered an Wittgensteinian approach to social practice and moral theory.

[edit] External links
Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Ludwig Wittgenstein

* http://www.mastersofmodernism.com/?page=Hardware&item=6
* Cambridge Wittgenstein Archive - German and English, includes pictures, biography, searchable database of manuscripts.
* Wittgenstein Portal
* Ludwig Wittgenstein at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* Wittgenstein's works are edited in an electronic edition (and sold on CDROM) at the University of Bergen in Norway.
* A collection of Ludwig Wittgenstein's manuscripts is held by the Trinity College library in Cambridge, England.
* Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) is a comprehensive resource of Wittgensteinian material.
* The ontology of Wittgenstein's Tractatus by Raul Corazzon
* Wittgenstein Scrap Book by Ralph Lichtensteiger
* Wittgenstein — Archive (Real audio stream) of BBC Radio 4 edition of 'In Our Time' on Wittgenstein
* The Jew of Linz by Kimberley Cornish a book review listing its detailed arguments for believing Wittgenstein was the object of Hitler's anti-Semitism.
* Wittgenstein on MIS Management Information Systems as proving grounds for the rule following paradox and other Wittgensteinian themes.
* Wovon, as recorded by a popular Finnish commentator on philosophy
* T.P. Uschanov's page Wittgenstein links
* Wittgenstein at the Internet Movie Database
* East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Pschotherapy: an international research and training center that has made use of Wittgenstein's work in psychotherapy, education and human development
* Wittgenstein, Tolstoy and "The Gospel in Brief" by Bill Schardt
* Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (A graphical tabs-centered version based on the Project Gutenberg edition)

Joseph Whitworth

Sir Joseph Whitworth, Baronet (December 21, 1803 – January 22, 1887) was an English engineer and entrepreneur.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life and career
* 2 Inventions
* 3 Death
* 4 Books
* 5 References

[edit] Early life and career

Whitworth was born in Stockport and at a young age developed an interest in machinery. He worked as a mechanic in Manchester and then in London for Henry Maudslay, Holtzapfel and Joseph Clement. At Clement's workshop he helped with the manufacture of Charles Babbage's calculating machine. He returned to Openshaw, Manchester, in 1833 to start his own business manufacturing lathes and other machine tools, which were renowned for their high standard of workmanship.

[edit] Inventions

Whitworth popularized a method of producing accurate flat surfaces during the 1830s, using engineer's blue and scraping techniques on three trial surfaces. Up until his introduction of the scraping technique, the same three plate method was employed using polishing techniques, giving less accurate results. This led to an explosion of development of precision instruments using these flat surface generation techniques as a basis for further construction of precise shapes.

His next innovation, in 1840, was a measuring technique called "end measurements" that used a precision flat plane and measuring screw, both of his own invention. The system, with an accuracy of one millionth of an inch, was demonstrated at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

In 1841 Whitworth devised a standard for screw threads that soon became the first nationally standardized system. Its adoption by the railway companies, who until then had all used different screw threads, led to its widespread acceptance. It later became a British Standard, "British Standard Whitworth", abbreviated to BSW and governed by BS 84:1956.

Whitworth was commissioned by the War Department of the British government to design a replacement for the calibre .577-inch Pattern 1853 Enfield, whose shortcomings had been revealed during the recent Crimean War. The Whitworth rifle had a smaller bore of 0.451 inch (11 mm) which was hexagonal, fired an elongated hexagonal bullet and had a faster rate of twist rifling [one turn in twenty inches] than the Enfield, and its performance during tests in 1859 was superior to the Enfield's in every way. The test was reported in The Times on April 23 as a great success. However, the new bore design was found to be prone to fouling, so it was rejected by the British government, only to be adopted by the French Army. An unspecified number of Whitworth rifles found their way to the Confederate states in the American Civil War, where they were called "Whitworth Sharpshooters".

The Enfield rifle was converted to Snider-Enfield Rifle by Jacob Snider, a Dutch-American wine merchant from Philadelphia. By converting existing Enfield rifles this way, the cost of a "new" breech-loading Snider-Enfield rifle was only 12 shillings.

Queen Victoria opened the first meeting of the British Rifle Association at Wimbledon, in 1860 by firing a Whitworth rifle from a fixed mechanical rest. The rifle scored a bull's eye at a range of 400 yards (366 m).

Whitworth also designed a large Rifled Breech Loading gun with a 2.75 inch (70 mm) bore, a 12 pound 11 ounce (5.75 kg) projectile and a range of about six miles (10 km). The spirally-grooved projectile was patented in 1855. This was also rejected by the British army, who preferred the guns from Armstrong, but was also used in the American Civil War.

While trying to increase the bursting strength of his gun barrels, Whitworth patented a process called "fluid-compressed steel" for casting steel under pressure, and built a new steel works near Manchester. Some of his castings were shown at the Great Exhibition in Paris ca. 1883.

Whitworth received many awards for the excellence of his designs, and was financially very successful. In 1850, then a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, he built a house called The Firs in Fallowfield, south of Manchester. In 1854 he bought Stancliffe Hall in Darley Dale, Derbyshire. In 1872 he moved there with his second wife.

A strong believer in the value of technical education, Whitworth backed the new Mechanics' Institute in Manchester, which was to become UMIST, and helped found the Manchester School of Design. In 1868, he founded a scholarship for the advancement of mechanical engineering. In recognition of his achievements and contributions to education in Manchester, the Whitworth Building of the University of Manchester's Main Campus is named in his honour, as well as the University Halls of residence "Whitworth Park" and one of the main streets in Manchester's city centre, "Whitworth Street".

[edit] Death

Whitworth died in Monte Carlo, where he had travelled in the hope of improving his health. He was buried at the church of Darley (or Darley Dale) St Helen in Derbyshire. A detailed obituary was published in the American magazine The Manufacturer and Builder (Volume 19, Issue 6, June 1887). He directed his trustees to spend his fortune on philanthropic projects, which they still do to this day.

[edit] Books

* Guns and Steel (1873) published in London by Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer.

[edit] References

* Sir Joseph Whitworth by Norman Atkinson, Sutton Publishing Limited 1996 ISBN 0-7509-1211-1 (hc), ISBN 0-7509-1648-6 (pb)
* "Wild One" by Bill Althaus, http://examiner.net/stories/121606/spo_121606049.shtml