A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 579 Don’t speak human words

Cambridge still has a good academic atmosphere, but in a few months, when World War I breaks out, the place will begin to change drastically, and a large number of troops and military departments will be stationed here.

In 1914, when France and Germany were still fighting fierce battles on the Marne River, the Irish Sixth Division had already assembled in Cambridge and set up camp on the public grassland. Many colleges became temporary headquarters for the Officer Training Corps, while Trinity College's great library became an open-air hospital, and the military established the "First Eastern General Hospital" with professors, undergraduates, and research assistants as volunteers.

Cambridge usually had 3500 students, but by 1915 there were only or left.

For many, Warfront has become the first-class club where former friends can be seen.

In 1918, when the war was coming to an end, at a sermon meeting, a Cambridge mathematics professor said sadly: “At least half of my students at Cambridge, and in fact all of them were the best students, were killed in action or were permanently disabled. Most of the years of math teaching I did were wasted.”

It can be seen from these situations that it will not be easy to communicate with European scholars in the next few years.

After all, Britain is a country that has not been affected by too many wars. They have arrived in such a situation. France, which is on the Western Front battlefield where the fighting is the most fierce, can imagine what the situation is like.

While in Cambridge, Li Yu stopped by to meet Russell. The two had met once before in Göttingen.

"Mr. Russell, how is your Chinese learning going?" Li Yu joked.

Russell spread his hands: "There is still a long way to go before I can understand the Chinese version of Star Wars."

This is quite conceited.

Li Yu asked: "Did Wittgenstein start studying philosophy as soon as he entered Cambridge?"

Li Yu nodded: "I met him in Vienna."

Russell sighed: "He is an extraordinary student, and his achievements in philosophy may be unattainable. Using your Chinese vocabulary, it is difficult to see his back."

Li Yu said: "The main reason is that I used the simplest style of writing in Chinese, which is as close to spoken language as possible. However, two thousand years of Chinese language is extremely refined, and ten characters can often replace dozens of modern Chinese characters, making it much more difficult to read. ."

"What does it mean for a student to become your teacher?" Li Yu asked.

Li Yu said: "Then Mr. Russell must work harder. There is still a long way to go between understanding the Chinese version of Star Wars and understanding the original version of The Analects."

Johnson once said helplessly: "Wittgenstein started teaching me when he first met me."

Russell felt his scalp numb: "I remember linguists said that Chinese has a terrible heritage, and even modern people can easily understand two thousand years of text; unlike English, modern people want to understand the ancient English of Shakespeare's time. It’s difficult. So since I can understand modern Star Wars, why can’t I understand the ancient Chinese Analects?”

"You can meet him in a moment," Russell said. "This student is to me what Ramanujan is to Hardy. Hardy was very happy to have discovered Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, and I was also very happy to have found a mathematical genius for myself. Philosophical geniuses are extremely excited.”

"Yes, that's what it means! The reason why I pay so much attention to language is because of his influence," Russell said. "The problem is that he has only studied philosophy for two or three years, and he has already revealed terrible potential, which is really shocking. And this This kind of potential is still emerging, and even my own mentor feels scared."

"That's because the ancients lacked writing tools. I still understand this," Russell said. "In addition, when it comes to language, my student almost became my teacher."

Russell asked doubtfully: "Do you know him?"

But Wittgenstein did have this ability.

Russell smoked his pipe and asked: "Is there still a gap?"

"No, he had already studied aeronautical engineering for many years at that time," Russell said. "Later, he read my "Principles of Mathematics" and came to Cambridge to join me.

"It's hard to compare with him," Li Yu said.

Li Yu asked: "Could it be Wittgenstein, an Austrian student studying abroad?"

"I remember when he first arrived in Cambridge he asked me, 'Do you think I am a complete idiot?' This question puzzled me, and then he said, 'If I am, I will fly an airship; if I am not, I will Go do philosophy.'

Li Yu said: "That's really big!"

Wittgenstein once met Russell's mentor Johnson as a student of Russell. He later told a friend frankly: "I knew within an hour of meeting him that he had nothing to teach me."

"So I asked him to write an article and read it. Within a few days, he gave it to me. After reading only the first sentence, I knew this guy was a philosophical genius."

Li Yu said: "It turns out that Wittgenstein entered the field of philosophy after reading one of your mathematics books."

Russell sighed: "The year I met Wittgenstein was also a watershed for me. From then on, I may rarely or at least not focus on mathematics."

This guy is the one who triggered the third mathematical crisis, and now he wants to leave!

Li Yu asked: "Why do you want to put down mathematics?"

Russell pointed to his head with his pipe: "Since it took me ten years to complete "Principles of Mathematics", my intelligence has never fully recovered from the huge loss. Since then, my ability to deal with difficult abstract problems has been worse than before. a lot of."

Li Yu thought to himself, it seems that studying mathematics is really taxing, even a figure like Russell can't stand it.

In fact, Hilbert also had similar troubles. Sometimes he would spend several months or even half a year going on vacation to restore his brain power.

——Is it possible that you are studying physics now because you want to restore your brain power? This is a bit shocking...

Fortunately, Li Yu also admitted that mathematics is still more difficult. There is nothing more difficult than mathematics in this world.

If someone who is in love says that love is the most difficult thing in the world, just slap him in the face with a book of functional analysis!

All joking aside, Russell was really devastated by the masterpiece "Principles of Mathematics".

Since then, many top mathematics tycoons such as Gödel and others began to relentlessly criticize the series of theorems that formed the basis of this book, causing Russell himself to begin to lose confidence in his own work.

Russell wrote in his autobiography that only six people close to him had read the second half of the book.

Russell's friends once relayed a nightmare that Russell told him: Russell dreamed that in the year 2100, the administrator of the Cambridge University Library was carrying a trash can and patrolling the bookshelves to throw away useless and outdated books. Stopping in front of three big books is the last surviving set of "Principles of Mathematics". The caretaker pulled a volume from the shelf and seemed bewildered by the complex mathematical symbols in the book, wondering whether he should throw them into the bucket.

While the two were chatting, there was a knock on the door.

"My beaker has arrived," Russell said, and then he shouted, "Come in!"

It was Wittgenstein who came in, with a pot of tea and two chemical beakers on the tray in his hand.

Li Yu asked in surprise: "What's the point of using a beaker for drinking tea?"

Russell laughed and said: "Wittgenstein thought that ordinary ceramic cups were too ugly, so he used a beaker. Looking at the scale on it, I suddenly liked this feeling."

Wittgenstein recognized Li Yu: "Are you Mr. Li Yu?"

Li Yu said: "Yes, you have changed a lot." He was only fifteen years old when we last met.

Wittgenstein said: “I have often seen your name in newspapers over the years.”

Li Yu turned to ask: "Do you still remember a classmate named Hitler when you were in school?"

Wittgenstein frowned slightly, "That student with poor grades? I remember it, but the impression is not very deep, because we were only in the same school for one year, and he was ordered to drop out."

Mustache and Wittgenstein are the same age, but they were two grades different when they went to school - Wittgenstein's grades were too good and he skipped a grade, while Hitler's grades were too bad and he stayed one grade.

Later, in order to find out the connection between the two, a thoughtful person carefully read through Mustache's "Mein Kampf" and finally found a fragment somewhere: Hitler mentioned that in middle school there was a Jewish student in the school that "we didn't trust very much." Various experiences lead us to question his judgment."

However, there is no direct evidence that this Jewish student is Wittgenstein.

Wittgenstein asked: "Are you two discussing mathematics? I have read Mr. Li Yu's "Fractals and Chaos" and "Game Theory", and I really appreciate the mathematical ideas contained in them."

"Let's forget about mathematics for now!" Russell said, "We just talked about the topic of language. Didn't you want to write a paper demonstrating language and philosophy?"

Wittgenstein said: "Yes, language is the boundary of our cognition."

This is the essence of Wittgenstein's early philosophy.

Philosophy is difficult to explain clearly, but it is useful to understand a little bit.

A few years later, on the battlefield of World War I, Wittgenstein completed his first philosophical masterpiece, the famous Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The first sentence was:

"Whatever can be said can be said clearly; what cannot be said must be kept silent."

This book marks a major turn in Western philosophy, namely the linguistic turn.

The "linguistic turn" is an important difference between Western philosophy and traditional philosophy in the 20th century. Focusing on language is a distinctive feature of Western philosophy in the 20th century. Language is no longer an instrumental issue involved in traditional philosophical discussions, but has become a starting point and basis for philosophical reflection on its own tradition.

The general meaning of Wittgenstein's book is: philosophy should draw boundaries for things that can be thought about. On one side are things that can be said and shown; on the other side are things that cannot be said. Even if they are said, they cannot be said. It makes no sense, and that boundary is just that: logic.

It was indeed very useful for Wittgenstein to study with Russell for several years, and he did learn very deeply in logic.

"Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" is a book with super strong logic. Wittgenstein said in the book: God can create everything, but he cannot create things that violate the laws of logic.

Specifically, Wittgenstein started with language, which is why he said that "language is the boundary of our cognition."

Wittgenstein used language to distinguish between "speakable and unspeakable".

He believed that the world is the sum of all facts, while language is the sum of propositions, and propositions are images of facts.

This conclusion is quite crucial and can be regarded as the overall conclusion of this book.

It seems a bit difficult to understand, but philosophy is like this, and there is no way to express it in a simple way.

Li Yu suddenly thought that he was really limited by language?

So I realized: "The information-carrying capacity of language is limited, and some things cannot be explained clearly in language."

Wittgenstein immediately said: "What humans grasp must be grasped through a certain sentence. Whether it is spoken by oneself or thought in one's mind, we cannot think about anything without language."

This is purely philosophical content, and it is absolutely impossible for Li Yu to debate him in philosophy.

There is a joke, that is, studying philosophy is the most helpful for quarrels.

Li Yu thought of a famous saying from the ancients, so he said: "There is a very famous saying in classical Chinese philosophy: Tao can be Tao, but it is not Tao."

Wittgenstein thought for a moment and said firmly: "The truth must be speakable."

He still has positivist philosophical thoughts at present, but in more than ten years he will completely overthrow all his views.

Wittgenstein wrote two books in his life: one is the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus just mentioned, and the other is Philosophical Investigations.

The views of these two books are completely opposite. The latter book is a criticism of the former one, and it is a thorough criticism.

Anyway, he himself will be against himself in the future, and Li Yu still follows Wittgenstein's saying, "You must remain silent about things that cannot be said."

Philosophy is really quite complicated, obscure, and difficult to understand when you go deeper, and there are very obvious stages. Therefore, if you want to study philosophy, you must first understand the history of philosophy.

When Li Yu was in college before he traveled back in time, the Philosophy Department of Peking University was ranked first in the country.

I remember hearing a joke from a student who had just entered the philosophy department: "Before studying philosophy, you were determined to talk to great souls. After studying philosophy, you discovered that great souls don't speak human language!"

And they often advise others that "you can fall in love with philosophy, but never marry it."

Li Yu still liked this sentence very much.

Fortunately, Li Yu didn't even need to study philosophy to talk to the great soul, because Wittgenstein was standing in front of him.

There is a saying circulating in the philosophical circles:

All people on the road to philosophy must pass through a bridge. The name of this bridge is Immanuel Kant. This bridge leads to classical philosophy.

All those who lead the way to philosophy must climb a mountain, and the name of this mountain is Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Climb this mountain and you will encounter modernist or postmodernist philosophy.

All those who lead the way to philosophy must cross a river. The name of this river is Ludwig Wittgenstein. This river leads to the decline of philosophy.

Kant, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein are the three giants in the history of modern Western philosophy.

Why Wittgenstein is said to be the "decline of philosophy" is a very philosophical topic, involving many philosophical views on epistemology.

But even if Li Yu didn't understand it, at least he was in one step and saw the "decline of philosophy."

(End of this chapter)