Wittgenstein flies a kite: a story of models of wings and models of the world

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Issue Date
2005-11-16
Authors
Sterrett, Susan G.
Advisor
Citation

Sterrett, Susan G. Wittgenstein flies a kite: a story of models of wings and models of the world. New York : Pi Press, 2005. --xxii, 329 p.

Abstract

The philosophy of language and experimental research in aeronautics made great leaps at about the same time in the early twentieth century. Strange as it may sound, this was no coincidence. Sterrett explains what Wittgenstein s glimpse of a solution to the problem of language in 1914 had to do with experimental models, which had been so crucial to the Wright brothers solving the problem of flight. On the eve of the First World War in Europe, Wittgenstein left aeronautical research to study philosophy. He was deeply dissatisfied with Bertrand Russell s solution to the paradoxes of logic, the theory of types. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, a physicist trying to improve U.S. aeronautical research capability pondered how the logic of empirical equations held the key to identifying physically similar situations, which in turn would explain the success of the Wright brothers airplane built from cardboard cartons and bicycle parts. His conclusion held an answer to Wittgenstein s problems about the logic of propositions.

Table of Content
Description
Toys to overcome time, distance, and gravity -- To fly like a bird, not float like a cloud -- Finding a place in the world -- A new continent -- A new age-old problem to solve -- The physics of miniature worlds -- Models of wings and models of the world -- A world made of facts.
First Edition edition
University Libraries owns this book: http://libcat.wichita.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2257817 Call No: B3376.W564 S8765 2006
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