When I prepared my presentation about Wittgenstein, especially chapter RELUCTANT PROFESSOR, I write down some of my thoughts towards Wittgenstein, some of them is biased, because I read something which reveals the weakness and defect about him:
To be honest, I first found Wittgenstein very mysterious and great (part of the reason is the translation of his german name sounds mysterious). But now I feel little disappointed. I see more a crazy and strange man rather than a genius. He may be a genius, but if it is because his madness and defect (I know it is wrong to say like this, but I can always have such feelings that some man is “great” just because he is strange or even mad), I don’t think it is a great thing. Also I am always confused about philosopher, they always think themselves have the right to judge everything, it is really ridiculous. So I am not happy about many of his thoughts concerning language, science and maths.
The content which gives me the deepest impression is about the death of Francis.
By the time the second world war broke out, Skinner’s period as an apprentice had come to an end and he returned to Cambridge and he seems to have made an attempt to return to theoretical work. But
he knew that he was losing Wittgenstein’s love. After his return to Cambridge, he and Wittgenstein lived separately
In 1941 Francis had been taken seriously ill with polio and had been admitted into hospital. On 11 October 1941, Francis died.
Wittgenstein’s initial reaction was one of delicate restraint. In letters to friends telling them of Francis’s death, he managed a tone of quiet dignity. :
~He died without any pain or struggle entirely peacefully. I was with him. I think he has had one of the happiest lives I’ve known anyone to have, & also the most peaceful death.~
By the time of the funeral his restraint had gone. He behaves like a ‘frightened wild animal’ at the ceremony, after the ceremony he refused to go to the house but walked around town.
The reaction is very pure Wittgenstein’s style. But I don’t think Wittgenstein’s guilt over Francis was because his influence on Francis. It had to do with more about Wittgenstein himself.
I think Wittgenstein is cruel towards Francis, as he admitted:
~In the last 2 years of his life very often loveless and, in my heart, unfaithful to him. If he had not been so boundlessly gentle and true, I would have become totally loveless towards him.~
I think it is a little like the normal lovers in daily life. The one who do more and contribute more always have less paid back. The other one always do not value this sacrifice, and later regret about his/her wrongdoing. In this aspect, Wittgenstein is also a very normal person, or even more stubborn and make more mistakes concerning emotions. He is genius in thinking, making metaphors and find out the tiniest details of world, but his genius make him innocent and vulnerable in emotion. He is not an all-rounder, like Keynes and Russell. His stubbornness and childish in emotions and love made him more vulnerable, and more sensitive to the world.
There is a very important concept about Wittgenstein’s love and philosophical ideas: solipsism
Compared with other people Wittgenstein love but not get reward, we can see the characteristics of his love: a certain indifference to the feelings of the other person. Neither Pinsent nor Marguerite nor Kirk were in love with him seemed not to affect his love for them. Indeed, it perhaps made his love easier to give, for the relationship could be safe, in the splendid isolation of his own feelings. But Francis acts opposite, he gave too many love to Wittgenstein, it seems that the ”overlove” made Wittgenstein feel unsafe. He is a man which loves to contribute something to others but afraid of “having too many reaction and reward” It is very strange to say “I understand him”, but I can really understand part of his philosophy in love. Sometimes I also felt it is better to contribute and make others happy. But the idea to have others treat you well too. You may want the reaction, but you are more afraid and frightened about the “disappointment”, the afraid overcome your desire for intimacy. I know several friends who are great at their study and work but holds the similar ideas about love, the ambivalent about love made them vulnerable. Actually I think love is really difficult for almost everyone, it is particularly difficult for someone like Wittgenstein.
Wittgenstein’s ideas towards love is the reflect of his core value towards life and his work. We can say that most of his later work is to against the philosophical solipsism which once attracted him very much. He characterized his later work as an attempt to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. Here I don’t think it is a very high comment on his contribution to other people, but about himself. He is a isolated man, he is always interested in so many things, like he loves more than one person, even more than one gender. But he is also afraid if one thing or one person hurt him or let him down because he is so into them. He always reflects on himself, he is always sensitive to the environment, be careful not to be controlled by other thing and people. This kind of character made him great at criticizing the problem of previous thought about world and give him the ability to do some very creative work. But this kind of character also made him struggle at most of the time.
Its parallel is the emotional solipsism. Together with Francis the isolation was threatened, and, in the face of that threat, Wittgenstein had withdrawn. I think it is the major reason he behaves really badly towards Francis in his last few years and made him so guilty.
It shows us what a complicated man Wittgenstein was, most importantly, the author gives us the parallel comparison about his love and his work. We can have a better understanding how one man’s characteristics can deeply shape him, especially for such a genius.