Wittgenstein and the Background 一 John Searle (2009)

John Searle's intervention at the second annual conference of the British Wittgenstein Society, “Wittgenstein & Naturalism”, 2009.
John Searle is Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ludwig Wittgenstein is regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Wittgenstein’s two major works, Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung (1921; Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922) and Philosophische Untersuchungen (published posthumously in 1953; Philosophical Investigations), have inspired a vast secondary literature and have done much to shape subsequent developments in philosophy, especially within the analytic tradition. His charismatic personality has, in addition, exerted a powerful fascination upon artists, playwrights, poets, novelists, musicians, and even filmmakers, so that his fame has spread far beyond the confines of academic life.