Self-understanding in the Tractatus and Wittgenstein’s Architecture : From Adolf Loos to the Resolute Reading

Between 1926 and 1928, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein designed a house for his sister in Vienna (the Kundmanngasse). This book aims to clarify the relation between that house and Wittgenstein’s early philosophy. The starting point of its main argument is a remark from Diktat für Schlick (c. 1932-33) in which Wittgenstein proposes an analogy between ornaments and nonsensical sentences. The attempt to extract from it an account of the relation between the Kundmanngasse and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) leads to the writings of Adolf Loos (whose influence Wittgenstein recognized). The discussion of Loos’s writings suggests that the analogy should be understood, not as one between actual ornaments and nonsensical sentences, but as one between Loos’s and Wittgenstein’s uses of these notions. So understood, it favors the (so-called) resolute reading of the Tractatus and reveals that both Wittgenstein’s use of ‘nonsense’ and Loos’s use of ‘ornaments’ are means to the end of promoting self‐understanding. The book concludes that both the Kundmanngasse and the Tractatus are results of Wittgenstein’s efforts at this kind of self‐understanding. These can be construed as ways of acknowledging our humanity , which in turn can be seen as a unifying element of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Series Editor’s Foreword Acknowledgments Contents Abbreviations 1: The Kundmanngasse and Its Significance 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The Kundmanngasse: History and Reception 1.3 Literature Review: Architectural Approach 1.4 Literature Review: Philosophical Approach 1.4.1 The Kundmanngasse and Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy 1.4.2 The Kundmanngasse as a “Silent” Continuation of the Tractatus 1.4.3 The Kundmanngasse as Tractarian Architecture 1.4.4 The Kundmanngasse’s Ethical Significance Bibliography 2: An Underappreciated Analogy from Diktat für Schlick 2.1 From the Diktat to the Tractatus 2.1.1 Two Kinds of Mental Disquiet 2.1.2 Wittgenstein on Driesch and Heidegger 2.1.3 Mysticism and Metaphysics 2.2 Inarticulate Sounds as Nonsense 2.2.1 ‘Artikuliert’ and ‘Gegliedert’ in the Tractatus 2.2.2 Nonsense and Equivocation 2.3 Ornament and Nonsense 2.3.1 Main Aspects of the Analogy 2.3.2 Tractarian Architecture and Ringstraßenstil 2.3.3 Rejecting the Superfluous: From Wittgenstein to Loos Bibliography 3: Loos on Ornaments 3.1 Two Problems for Loos’s Remarks on Ornaments 3.1.1 Practical Contradictions and Lack of Explanatory Power 3.1.2 Searching for a Loosian Definition of ‘Ornament’ 3.1.3 Three Interpretative Strategies 3.2 Loos’s Cultural Criticism in Context 3.2.1 Loos Against Historicism and Jugendstil 3.2.2 Art, Architecture, and Crime 3.2.3 ‘Ornament’ as a Means to an End 3.3 The Looshaus Reconsidered Bibliography 4: Nonsense in the Tractatus 4.1 Two Problems for Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Nonsense 4.2 Interpretative Strategies 4.2.1 Two Strategies: Neurath-Carnap and Traditional Readings 4.2.2 Third Strategy: Resolute Reading 4.3 Vindicating the Analogy 4.3.1 The Tractatus in Light of the Analogy 4.3.2 Reconsidering the Main Aspects of the Analogy 4.3.3 Loos and Wittgenstein as “Creative Separators” Bibliography 5: Wittgenstein on Architecture and the Kundmanngasse 5.1 Good Periods, Bad Periods 5.1.1 Culture and Civilization 5.1.2 Some Notes on Spengler’s Influence 5.2 Architecture and Functional Buildings 5.2.1 A Gesture of Glorification and Immortalization 5.2.2 Functional Buildings 5.3 The Kundmanngasse as a Functional Building 5.3.1 A Modern Palais for Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein 5.3.2 The Kundmanngasse in Light of Its Function 5.3.3 “The Product of a Decidedly Sensitive Ear” Bibliography 6: Functionalism and Self-Understanding 6.1 Loos and Wittgenstein as Functionalists 6.1.1 Loos’s “Poor Little Rich Man” 6.1.2 Program, Function, and Use 6.1.3 Functionalism as Self-Reflective Architecture 6.1.4 A Note on Wittgenstein’s Intellectual Relationship with Loos 6.2 Conclusion: The Kundmanngasse and the Tractatus as “Work on Oneself” Bibliography Index