“What has history to do with me?” Wittgenstein and the Problem of History

Abstract

I examine three moments in the evolution of Wittgenstein’s thinking on history: first, his attempt in the run-up to the Tractatus to bracket out historical considerations altogether; second, his concern with time and history in the early 1930’s in connection with his reading of Spengler and Frazer; third, his late reflections on a puzzle posed by Russell concerning the possibility of a radical historical skepticism.