Recently the paper shredder has been working overtime. It has been chewing its way through bills, bank statements and a few drawers worth of career documents: CVs, pay slips, bonus letters and redundancy notices. Stopping frequently to let it cool down, a thought emerged about my career and the path it had taken - had it been worth it ? Then I remembered the advice the philosopher Wittgenstein gave to Maurice Drury, one of his ex-students.
Wittgenstein met Maurice Drury in 1929 during his period as a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge University. He actively encouraged his students not to become professional philosophers, and in Drury’s case after graduating he became a psychiatrist. They met as often as circumstances allowed until Wittgenstein’s death in 1951.
During one visit they went for an evening walk when Drury, who was a newly trained doctor, doubted his career path, because of his “ignorance and clumsiness.” At the time Wittgenstein brushed off the conversation as Drury’s lack of experience. Later that evening he wrote him a letter giving advice about his choice of career. After a section where he admonished Drury for “thinking about himself” when he should be “thinking about others e.g. your patients”, he wrote:
“But not because being a doctor you may not go the wrong way, or go to the dogs, but because if you do, this has nothing to do with your choice of profession being a mistake. For what human being can say what would have been the right thing if this is the wrong one? You didn’t make a mistake because there was nothing at the time you knew or ought to have known that you overlooked.”
Wittgenstein’s approach to solving philosophical problems was to untangle the misuse of words. In particular, it is using words where they have lost their meaning that leads to philosophical problems for example: is truth the highest good?, are computers conscious? and can he can feel my pain? Wittgenstein’s solution was to show that the use of words such as “truth”, “good”, and “conscience” were being misused and once shown then the problems disappear.
In their conversation Wittgenstein picked up on Drury’s use of the word “mistake” and questioned if he had used it correctly. The word mistake is used in the context of knowing the action that should be taken. For example when I take a route to visit a friend and arrive late because I took a wrong turn I may say “Sorry I am late, but I made a mistake and turned left instead of right at the traffic lights”. I am using the word mistake correctly because I am describing where I went wrong. Therefore within the context of visiting my friend the word mistake is being correctly used and its meaning is clear to both of us. However, in the case of a career to use the word mistake correctly would mean that I would have known what the correct career route was, and nobody knows that because we can’t read into the future. Drury made the best decisions he could within the circumstances at that time.
Wittgenstein’s advice to Drury is not the standard career guidance that floods the book shops and web with ‘Ten Steps To Success’ type headings. Instead, he untangles the misuse of a word that leads to Drury’s frustration about his career choice. As the shredder grinds through the last staff appraisal, Wittgenstein’s career advice has questioned whether I was asking the right question!
To read the full letter, click here.