Wittgenstein Reads Weininger Book

This is an intriguing, though somewhat unfulfilling, collection of essays that seek to find and illuminate links between Wittgenstein's philosophy and Weininger's through a few direct references in Wittgenstein's work, and several indirect links in their methods, backgrounds and personal outlook. The evidence gets a bit thinner as focus is shifted from the "early Wittgenstein" of the Tractatus and the "later Wittgenstein" of Philosophical Investigations, where most of the references appear to distance Wittgenstein's ideas against Weininger's.

Initial suppositions by the authors are not supported with textual references - simply asserted. Though I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that Weininger was guilty of "racism, homophobia, and sexism" - it isn't something you assert in the first few pages without any specific reference to the material in question.

Another problem that arose for me was this: couldn't the same themes about solipsism, the nature of genius etc. that Wittgenstein and Weininger supposedly share be traced back to Schopenhauer? If so, where are the boundaries?

Of the essays, Joachim Schulte's: Wittgenstein and Weininger: Time, Life and World, is the easiest to read and provides an accessible context in which to view their work. I think I like this essay best because it places their work "in the world" instead of picking apart similar strands to study under a microscope. This chapter, however, brings the relationship no closer to a concrete understanding.

I took from this book that I just needed to read Weininger's "Sex and Character" again to decide for myself where I might see parallels or contradictions.