Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" How should we interpret this proposition?

Wittgenstein view is powerful on the basis that he understands the role that language plays in our representation of the world. On Wittgenstein's view, the world consists entirely of facts. (Tractatus 1.1) Human beings are aware of the facts by virtue of our mental representations or thoughts, which are most fruitfully understood as picturing the way things are. (Tractatus 2.1) These thoughts are, in turn, expressed in propostitions, whose form indicates the position of these facts within the nature of reality as a whole and whose content presents the truth-conditions under which they correspond to that reality. (Tractatus 4) Everything that is true -- that is, all the facts that constitute the world -- can in principle be expressed by atomic sentences (Philosophy Pages).

Wittgenstein believes that all propositions are of equal value as language is naturally separated from the actual occurrence in nature or the world. He believes that ethics are transcendental. According to this view, there is ethical responsiveness already present, embedded, in everything we say and think. The ethical is a kind of condition for thinking about things in the first place -- a condition for making contact with them with our mind, in judgment and in action. This is the sense in which it is transcendental, on this view (Agam-Segal). Therefore if something transcends the world as fact, and facts represent all the world, then we cannot speak of ethics and must be silent on the subject. This lies outside the realm of inner thought and thus is somewhat impervious to the language that tries to explain it. Therefore, if we can't express the answer to something from a different realm, then what do is the question, or the question too cannot be expressed (or valuable).

Works Cited

Agam-Segal, R. "The Transcendence of Ethics - Two Views." 2 June 2012. Notes and Half-Thoughts. Online. 21 March 2013.

Philosophy Pages. "Ludwig Wittgenstein: Analysis of Language." N.d. Philosophy Pages. Online. 20 March 2013.