{"id":1110,"date":"2026-06-23T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ekrap.com\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:58:17","slug":"minimalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ekrap.com\/?p=1110","title":{"rendered":"Minimalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I wonder what Wittgenstein (left) would have thought of “separated at birth” Phillip Glass (right). Wittgenstein was from a very musical family, his brother Paul was a celebrated pianist who lost his right arm in WW I, but who went on to commission and perform one-handed pieces from some of the leading composers of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This intrepid attitude is remarkable in light of the fact that there were three Wittgenstein brothers who committed suicide: Hans, Rudolph and Kurt. Ludwig lived an itinerant minimalist life, and although he only wrote one 75 page book, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”, and some notes, he is considered one of the pre-eminent philosophers of modern times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tracticus” is minimalist in that it is “written in an austere and succinct literary style, containing almost no arguments as such, but consists of 525 declarative statements, which are hierarchically numbered.” (Wikipedia<\/a>). It’s notoriously difficult to understand. Here is a summation of the declarative statements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n