Wittgenstein: The Crooked Roads

Description

Difficult to know and impossible to forget, Ludwig Wittgenstein is remembered as the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. He published only one book in his lifetime - a masterpiece that moulded the evolution of philosophy and baffled his teachers. Spanning most of his life, from his early encounters with Bertrand Russell in Cambridge to a final trip to New York via the Russian Front, Wittgenstein: The Crooked Roads tracks the journeys of a tortured soul. William Lyons, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Trinity College, Dublin, has written a moving and philosophically acute journey through successive decades of Wittgenstein's career. The play received its world premiere on 19 April 2011 at the Riverside Studios.

William Lyons was formerly head of the Department of Philosophy (1985-1995) and Professor of Moral Philosophy (1985-2004) in the School of Mental and Moral Science, Trinity College Dublin. He is now an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

This play is undaunted by [Wittgenstein's] famously incomprehensible ideas . . . [It] grabs philosophical enquiry by the shoulders and gives it a good shake . . . Wittgenstein is not afraid to air philosophical ideas. Did we understand them all? No. Will you understand them? Probably not. Does that matter? Not a bit. In fact that's the whole point. * Londonist *