Ludwig Wittgenstein inherited one of the largest fortunes in Europe and gave every penny away so he could think without distraction. Then he wrote two of the most important works in the history of philosophy — the Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations — and the second one systematically demolished the first. He solved philosophy twice, and the second solution required admitting the first was wrong.

This episode traces Wittgenstein from his extraordinarily wealthy Viennese family through his service in World War I, the Tractatus that he believed had solved all philosophical problems, and the decades of rethinking that produced an entirely new philosophy of language and meaning.

• The Wittgenstein family fortune, the suicides of three brothers, and Ludwig’s renunciation of wealth
• The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the belief that he had solved every genuine philosophical problem
• The years as a village schoolteacher, gardener, and hospital porter before returning to Cambridge
• The Philosophical Investigations and the radical argument that meaning comes from use, not logic