Silence was Wittgenstein's survival strategy
As we all know, one of Wittgenstein's important masterpieces is "The Philosophy of Logic". Wittgenstein, in a letter to Ludwig von Fick, the publisher who intends to publish the treatise, describes that the book's arguments are "about ethics" and that "to some extent ethics is defined from within by the book." Wittgenstein's claim clearly piqued the publisher's interest, but he was disappointed when he got the manuscript of the book. Wittgenstein devotes only a small part of the book to the insights on ethics, and he concludes that "ethics cannot be expressed" and that "whatever cannot be said should be silenced." According to a popular understanding, Wittgenstein meant that ethics was nothing more than a metaphysics expressing attitudes toward life, that it was meaningless nonsense that was not worth expending so much energy on such a subject, but wittgenstein's silence did not express an attitude of contempt. For him, silence is often a subtle sign that reveals many meaningful things. In fact, silence was not only a philosophical strategy of Wittgenstein, but also a strategy of survival for Wittgenstein.
Wittgenstein was born into a wealthy Jewish merchant family, and his father, Karl Wittgenstein, was a leading figure in the Austro-Hungarian steel industry. For Carl's eight gifted children, this illustrious family lineage was a heavy burden. Karl, the father of the tyrant, had a tyrannical will to power, and he did not care about the talents and interests of his children, and was determined to continue the business empire he had created. This strong pressure from patriarchy led directly to the suicide of Wittgenstein's two older brothers (Hans and Rudolf). Unlike the aggressive and uncompromising style he displayed in his prime, Wittgenstein chose the strategy of taoguang and obscurity when he was not strong enough to confront his father's adolescence. In conversations with family members, Wittgenstein learned to remain silent on the subjects he was truly passionate about, in order to avoid provoking his father's suspicion and repression, while merely revealing his concern for philosophical thought sporadically in his diary.
Wittgenstein's early life circumstances forced him to live a life against his own nature for a long time, and this repressive state created his sensitive and suspicious character. After many tentative encounters with Russell and his approval, Wittgenstein boldly stepped through the doors of philosophy. Russell's generosity and tradition of freedom in the English intellectual world allowed Wittgenstein to gradually let go of his vigilance and show his rigorous and strong authentic character in academic exchanges.
However, the shadow of his early life could not be easily removed from wittgenstein's heart, especially when he discovered a professional philosopher with deep differences with him, and his doubts and restlessness rekindled in his mind. Wittgenstein would then follow Schopenhauer's advice, and like a porcupine on a winter night, he would use his own thorns to keep the necessary safe distance when approaching other porcupines for warmth. Where, then, are wittgenstein's deep differences with professional philosophers in the tradition of analytic philosophy?
How to Read Wittgenstein, by Rui Munch, translated by Xu Bin, edition: Zhejiang University Press, March 2021
Philosophy should retain the unspeakable realm of mystery
Wittgenstein, upon learning of the Vienna School's plan to issue a manifesto for its founding, wrote to Weissmann to express his dissent, pointing out that the Vienna School's "rejection of metaphysics" was merely an ego. For Wittgenstein, metaphysics cannot be expressed directly in words, and therefore can only remain silent, but the things that people have to keep silent are precisely the things that are really important in human life, and human beings instinctively want to cross the boundaries of language and think about these big questions of fundamental importance. In Munch's view, the fundamental disagreement between the vast majority of analytic philosophers and Wittgenstein on this issue is that the former wants to abolish the mysterious realm through logical analysis, while the latter insists on preserving the mysterious realm by displaying these unspeakable things in an appropriate way.
Although Wittgenstein showed great logical skill in his philosophical discourse, he preferred to show these ineffable mysteries in poetry. On the recommendation of his friend Engelmann, Wittgenstein read a poem by the poet Uland called "The Hawthorn Tree of the Count of Eberhard", which is about a soldier who planted the hawthorn branches he had cut down on the battlefield into the garden of his hometown, and in his twilight years he sat under the hawthorn tree he grew up reminiscing about his youth. Wittgenstein admired the poem because it did not directly express the inexpressible meaning of life, but indirectly showed the ineffable in the picture presented by the poem. Wittgenstein even commented that the poem confirmed a philosophical view he had summed up, namely that "philosophy really should really be written only as a poetic creation."
In addition to the way art is displayed, the religious ascetic way of life is also regarded by Wittgenstein as an important way of showing mysterious things. Under the influence of thinkers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein committed himself to a variety of ultimate experiences that transcended the horizons of everyday life through an ascetic lifestyle. Wittgenstein took the initiative to give the large wealth he inherited to famous poets and writers such as Rilke, Tracker and Dharago, took the initiative to join the army during the First World War and faced the harsh test of life and death in the front-line battles, and after receiving the recognition of academic authority in Cambridge, he took the initiative to train to become a primary school teacher in the countryside. Most of Wittgenstein's relatives and friends could not comprehend his choices, which seemed to be squandering his talents, but according to Munch, this was due to Wittgenstein's deep influence on Schopenhauer's view that the strongest impulse for philosophical reflection came precisely from "the knowledge of death, suffering, and tragedy."
In fact, in Wittgenstein's view, behind the hard-line position of the vast majority of analytical philosophers against metaphysics is a scientistic conceit, which is also the concept advocated by the mainstream culture of modern society, and what he himself has done is the fight against this mainstream culture of society. It should be clarified that Wittgenstein was not opposed to the research activities of science and logic, but to the blind worship of the authority of science by philosophers, who were overwhelmed by scientific achievements, and imposed a unified logical form and research program on language, culture and thought. Wittgenstein argues that such practices not only belittle and suppress other important ways of understanding the world and human nature from history, poetry, and literature, but also have the potential to pose a mortal threat to the freedom of philosophers.
As a "sub-discipline study", modern science's research model reflects a high degree of specialization. If this model of research is rigidly copied to the field of philosophy, professional philosophers may be confined to a fairly narrow research direction for the rest of their lives, and gradually lose the critical ability to look at human nature and gain insight into politics according to interdisciplinary intellectual resources. Their influence outside the field of specialized research will be weakened, and their reliance on specific research institutions will be greatly enhanced.
Perhaps because of the unpleasant experience of patriarchal manipulation from childhood, Wittgenstein was quite disgusted by the vicious competition deliberately triggered by the power of the academy. From time to time, he advised trustworthy friends not to rashly step into academic circles simply because of their interest in philosophy. When advising his student Drury to leave college after graduation, Wittgenstein said bitterly, "Cambridge doesn't have the oxygen you need," but he went on to add, "It doesn't matter to me, I make my own oxygen," and that oxygen is enough to keep him comfortable on the ice peak of logic.
Build an intellectual castle on the Ice Peak of Logic
Weininger, a Jewish writer who was highly regarded by Wittgenstein, pointed out in his masterpiece "Sex and Character" that genius has the most delicate feeling of distinguishing between true and false, good and bad, and does not allow dissident views to be imposed on himself, and has a strong dislike for various "life lies". Wittgenstein devoted his life to the duty of this genius, but the tyrannical power always corrupted the language around him, inciting fanaticism, and hindering him from fulfilling such a responsibility. Wittgenstein found that "if in life we are surrounded by death, then our healthy intellect is surrounded by madness" and that "every thought that pays a great price leads to a lot of cheap ideas", and politicians use these cheap ideas to create confusion and dogma in language, trying to "absolutely control the expression of all opinions" and to make people "live under absolute, explicit despotism". Wittgenstein sought to clarify the confusion of these linguistic confusions through logical and philosophical analysis: "Sometimes a word must be withdrawn from the language, sent to be purged—and then it can be sent back to communication", and it is in this sense that "philosophy is a struggle to prevent our intellect from being deceived by linguistic means".
"On the Philosophy of Logic", by Wittgenstein, translated by Huang Min, edition: Guomai Culture | China Overseas Chinese Publishing House, July 2021
Under the influence of the pessimism of Spengler and Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein did not think that he had enough power to completely purge the intellectual life of that era of all kinds of falsehood and fanaticism, but he had enough power to forge an independent and solid intellectual fortress on the ice peak of logic, which not only allowed him to hold his ultimate concern for truth in this fortress, but also attracted generations of philosophers and thinkers to this ice peak to freely explore the many seeds of thought that could blossom. However, no matter how great the influence Wittgenstein had had, his maverick lifestyle and the ultimate concern of his distinction made him appear to be a lonely individual in any crowd, and perhaps it could be said that the path to the Ice Peak Throne was always just an incomparably lonely and lonely road.
Written by | Hao Yuan
Edit | Miyako
Proofreading | Xue Jingning