Ludwig Wittgenstein is widely regarded to be the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. The classical view of the relationship between language and objects in the material world held that words functioned like labels that are applied to pre-existing objects.Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk The linguistic turn refers to the increased interest in the connections between the nature of language and philosophical problems in the first half of the twentieth century. This is because Wittgenstein's work had a crucial influence on the linguistic turn in philosophy, and philosophy's linguistic turn shaped much political thought in the latter half of the twentieth century. Despite this, Wittgenstein's influence on contemporary political philosophy has been far-reaching. His few remarks on political and moral philosophy were outright hostile to the enterprise of normative theorizing. Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century, yet he published nothing on political philosophy. Clearly, this is not easily done, but it is a necessary task in the historical reconstruction of Wittgenstein's life and work. To do so, we have to take a second look upon what he actually wrote, not only in the already published material, but in the entire Nachlass. In order to write Wittgenstein's biography, we have to take seriously the coherence of his thought throughout his life, and not let convenient philosophical ideologies be our guidance in drawing up a “Wittgensteinian philosophy”. To comprehend the arguments against the metamathematical programme, and to appreciate how profoundly the philosophical method employed actually shaped the content of Wittgenstein's philosophy, it is necessary to make an intellectual biographical reconstruction of their philosophical framework, tracing the Hertzian elements in the early as well as in the later writings. In effect, Wittgenstein's controversial response to David Hilbert and Kurt Gödel was deeply influenced by Hertz and can only be fully understood when seen in this context. Logical paradoxes and foundational problems including those of mathematics were seen as pseudo-problems requiring clarity instead of solution. Wittgenstein applied this method successfully to critical problems in logic and mathematics throughout his life.

The German physicist Heinrich Hertz played a decisive role for Wittgenstein's use of a unique philosophical method.

Ludwig wittgenstein the duty of genius