If we accept Wittgenstein’s word for it, he is the last philosopher. In his view, philosophy in the traditional sense was finished.

Ludwig Wittgenstein was a superb logician who distrusted language and sought to solve the problems of philosophy by reducing them to logic. All else-metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, finally even philosophy itself-was excluded. What we cannot speak about, he declared, we must pass over in silence.

In Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Wittgenstein’s life and ideas and explains their influence on man’s struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Wittgenstein’s work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place Wittgenstein within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.