Imperial and private portraits of Ludwig Wittgenstein

The author analyzes the discrepancy between imperial and private versions of Wittgenstein’s image in relation to the translated article “Science and the Life-world. Wittgenstein and His Time” written by Munz. In the Soviet history of philosophy, Wittgenstein was regarded not in his own right but primarily as a character in a group portrait of positivists, or even as a part of historical evolution of the adversary, which positivism was to the Soviet philosophy. However, in the Austrian-Hungarian context, an alternative portrait gallery is depicted. This image persists in the countries that emerged after the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The author focuses on Wittgenstein’s relation to his age and uses the notion of the life-world to shed a new light on this relation. The conclusion is made that sooner or later, every great philosopher will appear in the history of philosophy in his concrete and complete individuality, which, according to Hegel, is a plenitude of abstract determinations. This implies that a philosopher is a nexus of diverse philosophical influences and trends, because in each philosopher, the totality of philosophy is reflected, like the ocean is reflected in every drop.