Description
After his intellectual biography of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Miles Hollingworth now turns his attention to one of Augustine's greatest modern admirers: The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's influence on post-war philosophical investigation has been pervasive, while his eccentric personal life has entered folklore. Yet his religious mysticism has remained elusive and undisturbed. In Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hollingworth continues to pioneer a new kind of biographical writing. It stands at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and literary criticism, and is as much concerned with the secret agendas of life writing as it is with its subjects. Here, Wittgenstein is allowed to become the ultimate test case. From first to last, his philosophy sought to demonstrate that intellectual certainty is a function of the method it employs, rather than a knowledge of the existence or non-existence of its objectsa devastating insight that appears to make the natural and the supernatural into equally useless examples of each other. Scattered in every direction by this challenge to meaning, this biography attempts to retrieve itself around the spirit of the man who could say such things. This act of recovery thus performs what could not otherwise be explained, which is something like Wittgenstein's private conversation with God.
About the Author
Miles Hollingworth is the author of several books, including Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography (OUP 2013). He has received the Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction from the Royal Society of Literature and the Elizabeth Longford Scholarship from the Society of Authors.
Reviews
This book displays an inheritance from Wittgenstein's philosophy and life that is different than many other interpretations. Hollingworth has chosen to write the text in a way that is inherently self-conscious, and one can see how this style of writing could emerge from studies of Wittgenstein's own self-criticism and forms of writing. It is good to be reminded that there are many possible ways in which a philosopher's life and work may be received. * Thomas D. Carroll, Reading Religion *
Summing up: Recommended * CHOICE *
"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits." This is a book that is informed by Wittgensteins profoundly mystical and pioneering sensibility. Eccentric, eclectic, elegant, esoteric and erudite it cracks open conventional ways of approaching philosophy and biography and is all the better for it. I was intrigued, moved, dazzled and confounded. Certainly the best non-fiction book I read in 2018. * Salley Vickers author of Miss Garnets Angel *
This is a staggeringly original book, huge in ambition and achievement alike. * Rowan Williams *
In short, this book is a tour de force-it's all here: philosophy, mathematics, aesthetics, psychology, literature, words, love, sex, God, silence. Reading Ludwig Wittgenstein is like waking up from a dream and knowing you will never see the world in the same way again. * Todd Breyfogle, Director of Seminars for the Aspen Institute *
Hollingworth swivels often-and so gracefully-from his subject to our subjectivity that you'll come quickly to see how much fun humanistic learning can be. He brings you originality, surprise, provocation, and a Wittgenstein you'll not be expecting and will not soon be forgetting. * Peter Iver Kaufman, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and George Matthews & Virginia Brinkley Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies, University of Richmond *
As quixotic as it sounds, this biography battles against the deadening effect of biographies, it drags the hidden biographer the disengaged biographer being a pose, an act into the light. * Nick Mattiske, Insights Magazine *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190873998
Author Miles Hollingworth
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 164mm * 27mm
About the Author
Miles Hollingworth is the author of several books, including Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography (OUP 2013). He has received the Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction from the Royal Society of Literature and the Elizabeth Longford Scholarship from the Society of Authors.
Reviews
This book displays an inheritance from Wittgenstein's philosophy and life that is different than many other interpretations. Hollingworth has chosen to write the text in a way that is inherently self-conscious, and one can see how this style of writing could emerge from studies of Wittgenstein's own self-criticism and forms of writing. It is good to be reminded that there are many possible ways in which a philosopher's life and work may be received. * Thomas D. Carroll, Reading Religion *
Summing up: Recommended * CHOICE *
"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits." This is a book that is informed by Wittgensteins profoundly mystical and pioneering sensibility. Eccentric, eclectic, elegant, esoteric and erudite it cracks open conventional ways of approaching philosophy and biography and is all the better for it. I was intrigued, moved, dazzled and confounded. Certainly the best non-fiction book I read in 2018. * Salley Vickers author of Miss Garnets Angel *
This is a staggeringly original book, huge in ambition and achievement alike. * Rowan Williams *
In short, this book is a tour de force-it's all here: philosophy, mathematics, aesthetics, psychology, literature, words, love, sex, God, silence. Reading Ludwig Wittgenstein is like waking up from a dream and knowing you will never see the world in the same way again. * Todd Breyfogle, Director of Seminars for the Aspen Institute *
Hollingworth swivels often-and so gracefully-from his subject to our subjectivity that you'll come quickly to see how much fun humanistic learning can be. He brings you originality, surprise, provocation, and a Wittgenstein you'll not be expecting and will not soon be forgetting. * Peter Iver Kaufman, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and George Matthews & Virginia Brinkley Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies, University of Richmond *
As quixotic as it sounds, this biography battles against the deadening effect of biographies, it drags the hidden biographer the disengaged biographer being a pose, an act into the light. * Nick Mattiske, Insights Magazine *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190873998
Author Miles Hollingworth
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 164mm * 27mm
