Fritz Mauthner

Fritz Mauthner
Born(1849-11-22)22 November 1849
Hořice, Bohemia, Austrian Empire
Died29 June 1923(1923-06-29) (aged 73)
Meersburg, Germany
Alma materCharles University in Prague
RelativesAuguste Hauschner (cousin)

Fritz Mauthner (22 November 1849 – 29 June 1923) was an Austrian philosopher and author of novels, satires, reviews and journalistic works. He was an exponent of philosophical scepticism derived from a critique of human knowledge and of philosophy of language.

He became editor of the Berliner Tageblatt in 1895, but is remembered mainly for his Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache (Contributions to a Critique of Language),[1] published in three parts in 1901 and 1902. Ludwig Wittgenstein took several of his ideas from Mauthner,[2] and acknowledges him in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922).[3]

  1. ^ Nájera 2007.
  2. ^ Janik & Toulmin 1996, p. 119, 121–133.
  3. ^ Wittgenstein 1922, §4.0031 "All philosophy is a 'critique of language' (though not in Mauthner's sense)".