The International Wittgenstein Symposium is an international conference dedicated to the work of

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consi ...

and its relationship to

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

. It is sponsored by the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society.

History

In 1976, the International Wittgenstein Symposium was founded by Elisabeth Leinfellner,

Werner Leinfellner Werner Leinfellner (January 27, 1921 – April 6, 2010) was professor of philosophy at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and at the Vienna University of Technology. After recovering from life-threatening wounds during World War II, he studied ch ...

, Rudolf Haller, Paul Weingartner, and Adolf Hübner in

Kirchberg am Wechsel Kirchberg am Wechsel is a town in the district of Neunkirchen in the Austrian state of Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, locat ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

. The location was chosen because in the 1920s, Ludwig Wittgenstein taught at elementary schools in the area surrounding Kirchberg am Wechsel. On the 24th to the 25th of April, 1976 (just prior to the 25th anniversary of Wittgenstein's death), the first conference took place. Only four of the five founders gave talks on his philosophical work at the first meeting, but at the second, 120 speakers attended from around the world.

Philosophical topics

The general topic of each symposium centers around the philosophy and philosophy of science of Wittgenstein, but the specific topics change from year to year. For example, the topic of the second International Wittgenstein Symposium was "Wittgenstein and his impact on contemporary thought" and the topic of the third symposium was "Wittgenstein, the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...

, and

critical rationalism Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper on the basis that, if a statement cannot be logically deduced (from what is known), it might nevertheless be possible to logically falsify it. Following Hume, Popper ...

(including a seminar on Popper's ''

The Open Society and Its Enemies ''The Open Society and Its Enemies'' is a work on political philosophy by the philosopher Karl Popper, in which the author presents a "defence of the open society against its enemies", and offers a critique of theories of teleological historicism ...

'')." A survey of topics is available from th
site of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

Proceedings

Starting with the second symposium, the papers accepted for presentation have been published in edited proceedings. From 1978 to 2005 the proceedings of the International Wittgenstein Symposium were published by Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, ontos verlag, and are now published by De Gruyte
The new series of publications of the ALWS, published by De Gruyter can be found here.
The proceedings published at ontos verlag are available Open Access online at
site prepared by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen
The Wittgenstein Archives have also prepared a site that contains a
Open Access selection of symposium papers from the period 2001-10

Sponsorship

The symposia are sponsored by the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society and they are largely funded by the government of

and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research.

References

External links

Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

From ontos verlag: Publications of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society - New Series (Volumes 1-18)

From the ALWS archives: A selection of papers from the International Wittgenstein Symposia in Kirchberg am Wechsel

From De Gruyter: Publications of the ALWS - New Series, from Vol. 20
{{Authority control Academic conferences Philosophy organizations Ludwig Wittgenstein International conferences Philosophy of science events Analytic philosophy