Wittgenstein and Philosophy

In this essay I reconstruct and contrast Ludwig Wittgenstein's conceptions of philosophy, which he developed during his two great philosophical periods. One of my goals is to highlight the significance of Bertrand Russell in both cases. I emphasize the fact that the common element to both conceptions is the conviction that traditional philosophy arises out of misunderstandings concerning, respectively, the logic or the Grammar of our language. I hold that Wittgenstein invented a new kind of intellectual activity, internally linked up to traditional philosophy although radically different from it and for which the best label is probably 'anti-philosophy'.