Inside the Great Mirror

physical realist heavily bverlaid with the interpretation afforded by linguistic analysis so he changed too. But at the time which was approximately during the second decade of the twentieth century they were no doubt very close in their views. Russell acknowledged the influence of Wittgenstein in several places in the 1918 lectures on logical atomism. Wittgenstein might not have written the Tractatus had Russell not given the lectures on logical atomism or at least had he not maintained the views there expressed. Certainly it is true in a very large sense that the Tractatus may be interpreted as a commentary on the 1918 lectures of Russell. Wittgenstein certainly did not hear them but as Russell said the topics were discussed together; and the debt of the Tractatus to the views of the contents of the lectures is obvious. Since Wittgenstein was the pupil and Russell the teacher we may assume despite the mutual influence that the greater effect was Russells. There is no space in which to go into a thorough analysis of the predecessors of Wittgenstein and of the influences upon him. In addition there is not sufficient data. One clue however we are given. One of his friends has informed us that Wittgenstein did read and enjoy Plato and recognized congenial features in his philosophical method 1 although to be sure Wittgenstein is not said to have been a great reader of philosophy.