Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher, widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His work primarily focused on logic, language, mind, and epistemology. Wittgenstein's thought profoundly shaped analytic philosophy, influencing areas such as philosophy of language, metaphysics, and ethics.
Life and Background:
Born: April 26, 1889, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.
Family: Wittgenstein came from a wealthy, industrialist family but experienced personal struggles throughout his life.
Education: Initially studied engineering in Berlin and Manchester but shifted to philosophy after encountering the work of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege.
Career:
Studied under Bertrand Russell at Cambridge.
Served in World War I and wrote his first major work during this time.
Afterward, he taught, lived in isolation at times, and returned to Cambridge, where he eventually became a professor.
Died: April 29, 1951, in Cambridge, England.
Philosophical Contributions:
Wittgenstein's thought is divided into two phases:
Early Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)
Later Wittgenstein – Philosophical Investigations (published posthumously in 1953)
1. Early Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Main Idea: The world is composed of facts that can be represented by logical propositions.
Key Concept:"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
Wittgenstein believed that language mirrors reality and that philosophy's role is to clarify thoughts by analyzing the logical structure of language.
Picture Theory of Language: Propositions "picture" the world. If a proposition cannot be logically connected to the world, it is meaningless (e.g., metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic statements).
Ethics and Mysticism: Wittgenstein ends the Tractatus with a famous line – "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." This reflects the idea that some things, like ethics and aesthetics, transcend language.
2. Later Wittgenstein – Philosophical Investigations
Wittgenstein abandoned his earlier views, critiquing the idea that language functions solely as a mirror of reality.
Key Concept:Language is a social activity, embedded in forms of life.
Language Games:
Different forms of language have different "rules" depending on the context.
Meaning is derived not from strict logical correspondence but from how words are used in specific contexts (language as a "game").
Critique of Essentialism: There are no fixed meanings; instead, meaning arises from use. For example, the word "game" doesn’t have a single essence but is understood through a family resemblance of various activities.
Anti-Theory of Mind: Wittgenstein rejected the idea of inner mental states being private or hidden. Understanding mental states (like pain) is rooted in shared human behavior and public language.
Key Works:
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921):
Early work exploring the relationship between language, thought, and reality.
Philosophical Investigations (1953):
Later work critiquing his earlier ideas, focusing on ordinary language, meaning, and rule-following.
On Certainty (Published posthumously):
Explores the nature of knowledge, doubt, and certainty.
The Blue and Brown Books (1933-35):
Preliminary notes leading to Philosophical Investigations.
Influence and Legacy:
Wittgenstein’s ideas reshaped analytic philosophy by shifting focus from abstract, formal logic to the everyday use of language.
His work influenced ordinary language philosophy (J.L. Austin, Gilbert Ryle) and thinkers like John Searle and Stanley Cavell.
Philosophers continue to debate his contributions to epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics.
Wittgenstein's work challenges philosophers to rethink the nature of meaning, the boundaries of thought, and the role of language in shaping our understanding of the world.
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The above content is a response generated through ChatGPT.
A human being is basically an emotional animal. All of its social and individual dealings are largely based on emotions. For example, if a woman receives a work opportunity in Bangalore and if she is a native of Gujarat, firstly, she would think about her socio-cultural background and then about her career. Complete rational choices and critical thinking are marred by emotions and feelings. If this woman's parents are alive and aged, she will think about them and may decide not to take the job and live with her parents.
There are several scenarios around us we can think of but the following video about critical thinking and decision-making is worth watching.
Do emotions hinder our thinking and decision-making skills? | ft. Dr. Milan Pandya | AskHowAbout
Authors generally express their feelings and experiences through their best narrative style and storytelling. Authors pen down and highlight the basic lacking of nation, sometimes they describe the political, socio-economical problems, and at times they also put their own views and theories to curb the majorly spread disease of the country. Speaking of India, there are still many deep dark stains, and they must be removed. Rape, corruption, unemployment, political malpractices, caste conflicts, poverty, starvation, malnutrition, child labor, child marriage... This is the only glimpse, but the list may become that much long that you may get tired reading this blog. This blog is a part of Sunday Reading task. Students were asked to write about the author. Here I've written the information about the author Arundhati Roy.
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author who is well known for her bestseller novels, "God of Small Things" and "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" She is also awarded with Man Booker Prize in 1997. She is also a political activist and involved in human rights.
Most of her works, whether it be a fiction or non-fiction, are directly related to Indian politics. Her debut novel God of Small Things (1997) is a semi-biographical book, but majorly showing her own childhood experiences. Her second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017), highlights the orthodox mentality of people. She called Narendra Modi as Gujarat ka lalla, and Manmohan singh as Caged Rabbit, Kejarival as a Mister Aggraval. Thus she strikes on many political incidents. Here is the video best describes the content of her novel.
It seems that Arundhati is more interested in political happenings of India, that's why she reflected most of the things related to it. Secondly, the success of her first novel, established that she, as an author, has got the perfect cut picture of Indian taste of readers. Because to reach out to the audience, one has to be very observant and has to have wide vision. She knows very well in which side to be. She was campaigning with Medha Patkar against Sardar Sarovar Project. Roy counters that her writing is intentional in its passionate, hysterical tone: "I am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes." In 2013 Roy gave her views on Narendra Modi, saying that "he runs everything, he has all backing of media, army and the majoritarian right wing votes. He has everything in queue. He is the system." Thank You!
Literature, when considered as hobby or passion, makes good friends. In English literature, we find many duo and trio of people who became good friends and they also have worked together. In the age of Romanticism or 19th century literature, we find two duos, who are none other than Jane Austen - Mary Shelley and William Wordsworth - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
At the department of English, many new learning methods are accepted. Through the audio visual presentation, students can learn things tremendous fast. In order to understand the present topic, we have made a video with the guidance of Prof. Vaidehi Hariyani madam. As part of group activity, students were told to make pair of two and assigned to make either a video/audio clip/blog for this thinking activity.
WW : Since we both are connected with English literature, what kind of literature you've produced ?
SC : I've worked on a poem "The Rime of Ancient Mariner" which became the famous poem of the collection Lyrical Ballads, published in 1798. Do you remember ?
WW : Yes, I remember. It was our first collection of poems and your poem was the first one. I;ve also published some poems like, "Mad Mother", "Idiot Boy", and "We are Seven" etc.
SC : In the year 1816, I've written a dreamlike poem Kubla Khan, and in 1817, I've also written an essay on literary criticism, "Biographia Literaria"
WW : The publication of Lyrical Ballads was considered as a start of English Romantic Movement.
SC : That is true. It was happened just after the French Revolution.
WW : I have given a famous definition of poetry and it is, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes it's origin from emotion, recollected in tranquility".
SC : Yes, I've heard of it, but my poems differ from yours in many ways.
WW : Yes, my poems presented the common and simple life of peasants and shepherds, much more connected with relations between man and nature.
SC : I have introduced some elements of supernatural mysteries in my poetry, and my aim to write poetry was to give them a semblance of truth.
WW : I've given my poetry the aim of giving ordinary things, the charm of novelty. "The Daffodils" is the example of it.
SC : In my poem "Kubla Khan" I've included the motif of nature, specifically water elements. Some high poetic sense makes my poetry a bit difficult for people to understand.
WW : Poetry is my life. I have my soul in all of my works.
SC : Our friendship is the remarkable duo in the English literature. We will be remembered ages together.
Nature is an integral part of human life. It is very difficult to define or bind a bunch of words for nature. Human agency has no power to understand the nature in it's extreme extent. When we say nature, what comes to our minds first ? Yes, trees and plants, rivers and streams, sierras and valleys, landscapes with beautiful scenes are called as nature. All these natural elements are very pleasant and joyful, but nature has it's other side also. Just like the other side of a coin, we find many good and bad things in nature. Here in this blog, the discussion of Romantic Age or 19th century literature is woven as the introductory thinking activity.
I see nature without any lenses, as it is. Although it represents many things, and also signifies various meanings. I like to see nature as a doer. Nature is the fundamental base of human existence. Being witness, I see nature's evolving branches in all the places; not only in earth, but in the entire space. In a broader sense, the Earth is but a small yet beautiful dot of nature. Just like गोरे गालों पे काला तिल. In universe, there are many planets and stars being created and destroyed by the process of supernova. So I can conclude that nature is doer and human has to cultivate witness approach or साक्षी भाव towards nature.
Sharing my own experience, today I went to a village, named Valukad, to take exam. Apart from the tension of exam, I found something to write in this blog. I saw many beautiful landscapes during this trip. Both sides of the road were covered with many farms, but here, see the duality, some animals were spoiling the good crop ! Just before a week or two there was some forecast announced that a storm created in the Arabian Sea may affect the shore-side lands of Gujarat. The storm was "Maha" dangerous for the people of Gujarat, but thanks again to nature, that it didn't touch the land ! See, we are both; afraid of nature and grateful to nature. We thank nature, when we eat juicy fruits, we feel grateful to nature when we drink power-packed coconut water. We love to tie swings on the branches of banyan tree. See the child's happiness on his face !!!
દ્યુતિ જે તને જીવાડતી દ્યુતિ તે તને સંહારતી
જે પોષતું તે મારતું એવો દીસે ક્રમ કુદરતી...
- કલાપિ
The whole world contains the beauty of nature. There are mountains which at one sight look very beautiful, but they can be a volcano, now volcano explosion is another phase of nature, which is disastrous and unwelcoming thing, still it is natural, and we, humans have to accept it. For highlighting the duality of nature, one can consider all the natural calamities at once. Earthquake destroys the most beautiful landscape which we like to visit. Landslide vanishes the entire hill station and turns the heaven into hell. Flood brings chaos to life. Hurricane unwraps everything and make people homeless, helpless.
Let's think of a farmer. He saws valuable seeds in farms with expectation of good crop, but who knows the nature's nature ? Will there be rain or not ?What if the rain would be excessive ? These are the common yet big worrisome questions for a farmer. And when nature decides to be on the other side, we know what happens.
Nature can be seen as a living being. It creates, evolves, nurtures, destroys and recreates. It does everything by it's own self. One can aptly apply this theory in the evolution of a very micro living creature - Amoeba. To see how nature works for itself, here is a bit lengthy but yet must watch video.
In a nut-shell, nature is an undefined, unpredictable yet beautiful truth.
झपटना पलटना, पलटकर झपटना, लहू गर्म रखने का है एक बहाना
परिंदो की दुनिया का दरवेश हूं मैं, एक शाहीन बनाता नहीं आशियाना – इकबाल
From 25th to 28th September, Rang Mohan Youth festival at MK Bhavnagar University was organised.
2019 is the year in which 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is being celebrated. Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University organised and hosted 29th Intercollegiate Youth Festival. "Rang Mohan", the title of youth festival is aptly connected with Gandhiji's life journey, from Mohan to Mahatma. There were about 1130 participants in the festival. Various events like, Folk songs, Western songs, paper collage, clay modelling, spot painting, spot photography, rangoli, mehendi, mono acting, one act play, skit, mimicry, mime, quiz, essay writing, elocution competition were included in the festival.
There were 5 stages allotted to these events,
1. આચાર્ય તખ્તસિંહજી પરમાર મુખ્ય મંચ અને કલાગુરુ ધરમશીભાઈ શાહ નૃત્ય મંચ (એમ્ફીથિયેટર)
2. કવિ શ્રી ત્રાપજકર નાટ્યમંચ (અટલ ઑડિટોરિયમ)
3. સુરમણિ રસિકલાલ અંધારિયા સુર મંચ (નવો કોર્ટ હોલ)
4. કલાગુરુ શ્રી ખોડીદાસ પરમાર કલા મંચ (બાહ્ય અભ્યાસક્રમ ભવન)
5. રાજકવિ શ્રી પિંગળશીભાઈ નરેલા સાહિત્ય મંચ (અંગ્રેજી ભવન)
In every event of this festival, there were many new notable things, let's have the glimpse of some of these events.
(01) Mimicry
Mimicry was the best performance because many new sounds like car, motorbike, scooter, aircraft and other things are introduced and most interestingly, different characters's voices from Hollywood and Bollywood were included. Especially Bad Joker, Oggy, Johnny Lever, Sunny Deol were the actors whose voices used for mimicry.
(02) Western Group Song
Western Group was the event I liked the most, because the participants have selected very appropriate songs and they were singing them very melodiously. Here are those original songs from YouTube.
(03) One Act Play
-:: Click Below link to watch the play acted by other university students. "મુકામ પોસ્ટ હૃદય"
જિંદગી નો આ ટૂંકસાર છે... ના કિનારો ના મઝધાર છે... Starting with such poetic lines, this play expresses well the terrible condition of psychologically disabled girl Mansi, who was in love with her pen friend, Bhadresh Bhavsar, whom she never met face to face and still got affection with him. Dr. Rushi, Mumbai based psychiatrist counsels his best friends' daughter Mansi who suffers from this double personality disorder.
-:: The other play was about Artificial Intelligence and how it can be connected with the ability of human's decision making skill. The positive side of Artificial Intelligence is shown in this play. Here is one glimpse of the play. શિવાની ના પપ્પા નું મૃત્યુ થયું છે. તેના ગામ જવા માટે અઢી વાગ્યા ની ટ્રેન છે. તે ખુબ જ આઘાત માં સરી પડે છે. શિવાની નિર્ણય લે છે કે બીજા દિવસ ની એન્જીનીયરીંગ ની પરીક્ષા નથી આપવી. તેની એક બહેનપણી મેઘા તેને સમજાવે છે કે, મૃત્યુ ના સમાચાર પહેલા ના સમય માં ખુબ મોડા આવતા હતા ત્યારે માણસ ને એટલો જ આઘાત લાગતો હતો, અને હવે ફોન અને સોશ્યલ મીડિયાના સમયમાં જ્યારે તાત્કાલિક મૃત્યુ ના સમાચાર આવે છે અને આપણે.. તરત જ આપણે નિર્ણય લઈએ કે આવતી કાલ ની પરીક્ષા નથી આપવી એમ શા માટે? તે બહેનપણી શિવાની પિતાએ લીધેલી લોન.. અને કેટલીક આર્થિક સ્થિતિઓ નું વર્ણન કરે છે અને એમ સમજાવે છે કે, પિતાએ જોયેલા સપનાઓ પૂરા કરવા માટે અને દીકરી ને આગળ વધતા જોઈને જો પિતા જીવતા હોત તો કેટલા ખુશ થાત? આ બધું તેની અન્ય બહેનપણીઓ સમજી નથી શકતી. ઘર માં દુઃખનો અને રોકકળ નો માહોલ હોય કે પછી કોઈ પણ કપરી પરિસ્થિતિ હોય દરેક વ્યક્તિએ આ રીતે જ સ્થિતપ્રજ્ઞ રહીને સાચા નિર્ણયો લેવાની ટેવ રાખવી જોઈએ.
નાટક માં બધા જ સ્ત્રી પાત્રો છે, તેથી સ્ત્રી સશક્તિકરણ પણ એક મુદ્દો બને તેમ છે. જયારે પણ આપણે કોઈ નિર્ણય લેતા હોઈએ છીએ ત્યારે તે પ્રેક્ટિકલ છે કે ઈમોશનલ તે પહેલા જોવું જોઈએ. ઈમોશનલ નિર્ણયો, ક્યારેક આપણને જોખમમાં મૂકી શકે છે. અને બુદ્ધિ પૂર્વક નો પ્રેક્ટિકલ નિર્ણય આપણને ઘણી વાર આવનારા મોટા સંકટમાંથી ઉગારી લેતો હોય છે. આ નાટક આપણને શિક્ષણ નો સાચો અર્થ સમજાવી જાય છે. ઘણા નુકસાન એવા હોય છે જેની ભરપાઈ ક્યારેય ન થઈ શકે. એકવીસમી સદીમાં ભાવનાઓ અપડેટ કરવાનો યુવાનો પાસે અવસર છે. આજની જનરેશન માં મીડિયોકર ટેન્ડેન્સી વધી રહી છે, લોજીકલી વિચારવાની ક્ષમતા અને ક્રિએટિવિટી આપણે ગુમાવી રહ્યા છીએ, છેલ્લે શિવાની ના મમ્મી નો ફોન આવે છે અને તેની બહેનપણી મેઘા, આન્ટી સાથે વાત કરે છે કે, "હા આન્ટી, આપે કહ્યા પ્રમાણે જ મેં શિવાનીને સમજાવી છે, હવે તે કાલે પરીક્ષા આપીને પછી જ ઘરે આવશે." અને ફરીથી બધી જ બહેનપણીઓ આંખ માં આંસુ સાથે બીજા દિવસ ની પરીક્ષાની તૈયારી માં લાગે છે. છેલ્લે જયારે આ વળાંક આવે છે ત્યારે કેટલાક મેલોડ્રામેટિક સંવાદો અને અભિનય થી પ્રેક્ષકો delight અનુભવે છે. આ નાટક ને લોજીક અને લાગણીઓનો અનોખો દ્વંદ્વ કહી શકાય. જેમાં દર વખતે જોવા મળતા લાગણીના વિજય કરતા આ નાટક માં લોજીક નો વિજય થતો દર્શાવ્યો છે. આ નાટક ઘણે અંશે નવીનતા ભર્યું અને વર્તમાન સમયને સાંકળતું નાટક છે.
-:: This play highlighted the center and periphery approach. Living in mega cities, we feel that nothing is happening wrong in society, everyone is given equal rights; men and women are considered equal, but here in this play, we come to know that how women are tortured and beaten by males in small villages. Below is the original film, "મહોતું"
-::Mythological plot taken from the epic, Mahabharata. Use of Long dialogues and highly figurative language makes the play a bit difficult to understand yet interesting.Urubhangam is the story of this play.
(04) Skit
-:: In the first skit, all the goddesses are portrayed very modern, drinking tea and coffee, talking with each other as of they are gossiping about some topic. They are talking about corruption in India. With humorous ways. It generates laughter with wit and satire. It can be said that this was anti-sentimental comedy.
-:: The second skit was about trading of human relations, someone doesn't like his father, of someone wants to buy a brand new husband! Very good satire on human's negligence towards relations like, brother, father, mother, daughter, sister etc. Human's are so busy with their own selves that they don't even know towards what decay they are going! This skit was very satirical. This image explains how a receptionist explains the values of relations for marketing purpose. At the end one old man comes and asks for a son, and the skit takes an emotional turn. -:: Fourth Skit was of Department of English, participants presented very peripheral topic, LGBTQQIA; Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex and Allies. These people are very much harassed, tortured, and hated just because they are not normal by their bodies. After all they all are the integral part of mankind, and they should be given equal rights and life.
-:: Fifth skit was also about negligence of youth towards their elders and breaking of family bonds. married couples are taking divorce because of social media, and other smartphone related reasons. Youth should spend mire time with their family and relatives instead of using too much social media. By doing this they will get to know each other and generation gap will be filled up. Interaction between elders and youth is much necessary in modern times, because youth doesn't reveal all the truth, and without telling any reason, young people are committing suicide. Doing healthy conversation is the only key to resolve these problems. The skit thrown light on this topic very aptly.
-:: Third skit was also very satirical towards various problems in India, like high pricing, patrol and diesel are being dear day by day. Ravan comes to the earth and feels amazed by watching the fast development in India, but he also strikes some satire on the arrival of unnecessary things such as Bullet train and Statue of Unity. Ravan, just according to his nature, scolds people and provokes them that if we want to uplift our country, we have to come out from the barriers of old and orthodox mentality.
(05) Clay Modelling
(06) Rangoli
(07) Paper Collage
(08) Spot Painting
(09) Spot Photography I was the participant in this event. Here are few clicks!!
Overall this youth festival was full of joy and colors of different talents. It became a good platform for young generation to perform and show the talent.
Have you ever thought that writing a poem can get you far away from stress? Well, many good habits are easily cultivated from reading and writing. It may seem strange but, in this era of web series and movies, people don't give much of their time to write something. Writing a poem each day can improve our mental health! Producing a literary work is not as simple as we think. The author has to pass through the pain; just same as a woman who is about to give birth to child.
Many critics gave their insight on different literary forms and wrote critical essays on them. A few critics are very sharp about their arguments, but some of them take some liberty and put their thoughts with lose string. Such lose arguments are broken by new critics and new ideology takes place of the old one. Poetry is one of the earliest literary forms. In this Blog, we will see the views of both the critics on Poem.
This thinking activity is part of self learning from the essays of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Here are two blogs posted by Dr. Dilip Barad, in which he has given video lectures, power-point slides on the topic and students are assigned this thinking activity to answer the following questions
Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834) Biographia LiterariaCh. 14. Click Hereto view blog. Coleridge is mainly considered as a poet and philosopher, but he also tried to give critical comments and arguments on the questions like what is a poet and what is poetry.
William Wordsworth(1770-1850) was associated with Coleridge and published the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.Click Hereto view blog. This essay was published in 1798.
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Que 1. Write brief note on the views of Wordsworth and Coleridge on Poem.
Ans: Poetry, as defined in Wordsworth's preface, is spontaneous overflow of powerful imagination recollected in tranquility. It means that a poem is the reflection of thoughts and imaginations of poet's mind. If we take the example of Wordsworth's poem Daffodils, we come to know that how the flow of imagination is spontaneous. Wordsworth put his views on poetry that 'poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science'. Which means that no subject remains unnoticed from the eye of a poet. He can cover all fields of knowledge in his poems and touch upon all the branches of sciences. In Wordsworth's poetry, we find the portrayal humble and rustic countryside life.
Now let us see how S T Coleridge defines poem and poetry. He simply puts that poem's immediate purpose is delight and it's ultimate end is truth. Any poem which fulfills both the requirements is a true poem. Coleridge further puts two cardinal points of poetry, (a) the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and (b) the power of giving the interest of novelty by modifying with the colors of imagination.
Que 2. Analyze 2 poems with reference to Wordsworth and Coleridge's views.
Ans: To A Butterfly by Wordsworth and Desire by Coleridge
To A Butterfly
Stay near me--do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee: Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart, my father's family!
Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:--with leaps and springs
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.
In this poem Wordsworth used butterfly as a natural image, and also portrayed bushes and brakes as rustic element of countryside life. At first, the poem gives us delight. Recollection of old days is also best fits in the characteristic of poetry, because some days are recollected in tranquility in this poem. "pleasant, pleasant were the days..."
Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame,
That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And but translates the language of the heart.
Perfectly philosophical in nature, the poem unveiled human's inner emotions. this poem also has spontaneous overflow of imagination and, just as Coleridge says, the poem also has truth as the ultimate end and pleasure as immediate purpose. If Love is a burning element, then Desire is it's flame. Here we get the natural image of fire, earth and human heart, which represents truth of nature.
