To say that Wittgenstein laid the
groundwork for
logical positivism is
pushing it slightly; what Wittgenstein considered to be beyond
language and (thus) beyond
reason was taken by the positivists to be
meaningless. Wittgenstein himself states in his
Tractatus "And unless I am
mistaken in this
regard, then this book has
worth secondly in displaying how little is achieved with the
solution to these
problems", referring to all
philosophical problems. The
translation (from
Finnish this time) is mine, but should be fairly accurate. Wittgenstein alludes to the importance of what cannot be said by showing that logical pictures or thoughts are tautological.
Wittgenstein and Hitler's time in the same school in Linz is documented in a book called 'The Jew of Linz'