SUBSTITUTING FEELING FOR THOUGHT:

When he first met Wittgenstein, Russell called him "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius," despite or perhaps because he couldn't understand what young Ludwig was saying. Writing to his lover Ottoline Morrell in 1913 about Wittgenstein's attack on one of his logical doctrines, Russell confessed: "I couldn't understand his objection--in fact he was very inarticulate--but I felt in my bones that he must be right." He added: "I saw that I could not hope ever again to do fundamental work in philosophy."

That Wittgenstein's mysterious charisma disabled a philosopher and logician as brilliant as Russell was among the first of its baleful effects, and Russell did in fact largely abandon logic at that moment. For a while, instead, he concentrated on spreading the Wittgenstein miasma, and his admiration turned Wittgenstein into an intellectual superstar. Ever since, Wittgenstein has been more of a cult than an argument, an irrationalist movement in a supposedly rational discipline. Like Russell, Wittgenstein's followers know he is right; the only difficulty is knowing what he meant.

Had Russell chosen to respond in detail to The Blue Book, Wittgenstein would have flown into a rage. According to Wittgenstein, no one ever understood Wittgenstein, Russell least of all. No paraphrase is adequate; no definite interpretation captures the true intentions of the Genius. He slips through the fingers like sand. No blow can land, for the real Wittgenstein is always elsewhere.

Ludwig even had trouble interpreting himself plausibly.

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