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Wittgenstein in Ireland

Having visited Ireland regularly during the 1930s, Ludwig Wittgenstein resigned his Cambridge philosophy professorship in 1947 and moved there, living in a fishing village on the Atlantic coast and hotels in Dublin and the Wicklow Mountains. Although Wittgenstein spent some time out of the country, Ireland was effectively his base for three very productive years during which he worked on what would become one of his key books, the posthumously published Philosophical Investigations.

Wittgenstein in Ireland represents the first sustained account of Wittgenstein’s time in Ireland, placing it in its historical context. Wall pays a good deal of attention to the representation of the Irish landscape in which the Austrian philosopher found himself able to work; a large part of his writings were produced in the bleak landscapes of Ireland and Norway.

Distribution by the University of Chicago Press only to customers in the USA and Canada. Customers elsewhere should visit the UK website of Reaktion Books.


202 pages | 5.5 x 8.25

Biography and Letters


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Reviews

"[An] enchanting and perceptive record. . . . Wall provides an unforgettable understanding of  ’Irish Wittgenstein.’ It is a discreet jewel."

George Steiner | The Observer

"One of the most haunting and revealing accounts of his complex personality emerged this year in Richard Wall’s book Wittgenstein in Ireland. Wall has documented Wittgenstein’s various visits to and sojourn in Ireland and has managed to retrace Wittgenstein’s steps with remarkable fidelity. Despite the book’s comparative brevity, a picture of the man emerges which has all the idiosyncracies and textures of a full-length portrait."

Times Literary Supplement

Table of Contents

Foreword
Drury’s Ireland
In Kilpatrick House, Redcross, Co. Wicklow
Rosroe, Déjà vu,. As Sole Inhabitant of the House by the Quay
At Ross’s Hotel, Dublin
Finis
References
Chronology
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
 

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