1127Ludwig Wittgenstein was born into one of Vienna’s leading families. His father,
Karl, was a wealthy steel industrialist and his mother, Leopoldine, a concert
pianist. Johannes Brahms, Gustaf Mahler, and Pablo Casals were frequent house-
guests of the Wittgensteins. Educated at home by tutors, Wittgenstein showed
great promise in mathematics and engineering. According to one report, he built a
working sewing machine from matchsticks at age 10.
Wittgenstein remained home until age 15, when he enrolled at the Linz
Realschule,where he studied engineering for two years before transferring to
Berlin. In 1908, Wittgenstein enrolled at the University of Manchester, England,
for studies in aerodynamics. While designing a propeller, Wittgenstein developed
an interest in mathematics, which led him to Cambridge. There, from 1912 to
1913, he studied with Bertrand Russell. Russell later recalled one of his first
encounters with Wittgenstein:At the end of his first term at Cambridge he came to me and said, “Will you please
tell me whether I am a complete idiot or not?” I replied, “My dear fellow, I don’t
know. Why are you asking me?” He said, “Because if I am a complete idiot, I shall
become an aeronaut; but, if not, I shall become a philosopher.” I told him to write
me something during the vacation on some philosophical subject and I would then
tell him whether he was a complete idiot or not. At the beginning of the following
term he brought me the fulfillment of this suggestion. After reading only one sen-
tence, I said to him, “No, you must not become an aeronaut.”*LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
1889–1951
*Bertrand Russell,Portraits from Memory(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957), pp. 26–27.