Word: wittgensteins
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Doubtless, most people who succeed upon graduation from Harvard would have done just as well graduating from another university. But Harvard does give us the chance to meet one another, and as you go through the typical college experience of partying, studying, and having late-night chats about Wittgenstein and existentialism, do keep that in mind...
More recently, he taught graduate courses on Quine, Russell, Wittgenstein and other modern philosophers at Boston University...
...atomic physicist --Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist --Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst --Robert Goddard, rocket scientist --Kurt Godel, mathematician --Edwin Hubble, astronomer --John Maynard Keynes, economist --The Leakey Family, anthropologists --Jean Piaget, child psychologist --Jonas Salk, virologist --William Shockley, solid-state physicist --Alan Turing, computer scientist --James Watson & Francis Crick, molecular biologists --Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher --The Wright Brothers, visionary aviators...
...looking up, opening her eyes and answering the question with fluency and intelligence. I was amused by this and did an imitation of it to divert my colleagues after dinner. Among them was a distinguished Oxford philosopher. As soon as he saw my imitation, he immediately said, "That's Wittgenstein! Is her surname _____ by any chance?" Taken aback, I said that it was. "I thought so," said my colleague. "Both her parents are professional philosophers and devoted followers of Wittgenstein." The gesture had passed from the great philosopher, via one or both of her parents, to my pupil...
Some will say that in the longer run, Wittgenstein's legacy will prove to be the more valuable. Perhaps it will. Wittgenstein, like any other charismatic thinker, continues to attract fanatics who devote their life to disagreeing with one another (and, presumably, with my brief summary) about the ultimate meaning of his words. These disciples cling myopically to their Wittgenstein, not realizing that there are many great Wittgensteins to choose from. My hero is the one who showed us new ways of being suspicious of our own convictions when confronting the mysteries of the mind. The fact remains that...