Wittgenstein and autism

Autism has become a common diagnosis for children with behavioural difficulties and the question arises why diagnoses of autism are increasing.  One reason is that it has been underdiagnosed in the past.  I hear anecdotally of adults, often parents of children with autism, being diagnosed later in life.  I was interested to come across a review of a book (by Michael Fitzgerald) that hypothesizes that many intellectuals of the past may have had this impairment.  The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is considered in particular. 

Certainly having read Monk’s biography of the young Wittgenstein, he comes across as socially awkward and unaware of the niceties of social interactions.  From what I understand, he sought solitude in order to escape what he felt was the oppressiveness of society.  Nevertheless, throughout his early life he sought companionship, but often failed to make a connection and so suffered terribly from loneliness.  His behaviour certainly seems autistic.  In his later work, the Philosophical Investigations, he explores the social context of language. One of the intriguing conjectures made by Fitzgerald is that this work was driven by his personal need to intellectualize communication and sociability to compensate for his lack of instinctive understanding of them.  This is apparently a common strategy for autistics as they grow older.  It is also clear that through his life he was preoccupied with two themes: (1) understanding the world, (2) understanding himself.  It would be natural for the two themes to become merged in his thought.

One of the interesting conclusions of this book is that autistic people make an important contribution to society.

As an aside, I was quite amused to learn that when he was asked prior to publication if some explanatory notes could be added to his rather short Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein replied that if the publishers wanted to pad out the book, they could add 12 blank pages at the end so the reader would have something to be angry at when they finished the book without being able to comprehend it!!!