On the communication of metaphysical ideas

Wittgenstein's ontology

pp. 104-128

in: Karl Menger, Reminiscences of the Vienna circle and the mathematical colloquium, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

In 1925, when I first heard about the Tractatus — I have forgotten from whom — I was busy finishing a paper "Principles of a General Theory of Curves," and this left me little time for anything else. Nevertheless I started reading the book. But I stopped after the first few pages. If this did not speak well for my instinct in matters philosophical, there certainly were extenuating circumstances even apart from the lack of leisure.