Happy Wittgenstein day. On this day in 1889, Ludwig Wittgenstein was born.

I think it goes without saying that the influence Wittgenstein had on philosophy is of titanic proportions. His contributions to the philosophy of mind, logic, and language have been a template upon which further work and advancement in the field of linguistics, sociology, and dare I say cognitive and computer science have taken hold.

He influenced many great thinkers and was thought to be a great thinker even amongst such great minds at the Vienna circle, and in Russell's mind. Godel, Turing, Keynes, and many others admired him and his passion.

He was also a very humble person, who tried teaching children, was a gardener, and for a brief period lived a monastic life. He is said to have thought about moving to the USSR and starting a new life there. He was quite religious reading Tolstoy in WWI.

Wittgenstein has changed my life also. I began studying him when I first came upon some quotes from the Investigations. It was as if after all the digging around I did in philosophy, there was a man who had found the ground from the soil, which in the process made philosophy clean and austere instead of dirty and confusing, and talked about it instead of the dirt. I'm sorry if the analogy is daft, but that's literally how I felt.

Anyway, happy Wittgenstein day!