Hello everyone, here is a small broadcast reading, today we continue to introduce the philosophical ideas of the famous philosopher Wittgenstein of the 20th century. If Wittgenstein has any consistent ideas in his Treatise on the Philosophy of Logic and Philosophical Studies, it is the knowledge of philosophy itself. Philosophy is one: healing. In Philosophical Studies, he says that philosophy deals with a problem like treating a disease. In Wittgenstein's thought, philosophy is a clarification, an explanation, a description, not a creation.
In Philosophical Studies, Wittgenstein famously said: What is your philosophical purpose? His answer was to show the path that flew out of the fly bottle. In other words, the exit of the fly flask is there, and the job of philosophy is to point out the way to the exit, and philosophy is a clarification, a statement. In The Philosophy of Logic, Wittgenstein also says that most of the propositions and questions that philosophy has written are not false, but meaningless. Therefore, it is impossible for us to answer such questions, but only to state their meaninglessness.
And this is not surprising, the most profound problem, in fact, is not a problem at all.
The purpose of philosophy is to clarify the logic of thought.
Philosophy is not a theory, but an activity. The work of philosophy is primarily to clarify. The result of philosophy is not some "philosophical proposition", but the making of proposition clear. Philosophy should make clear ideas that are otherwise opaque and vague, and draw clear lines for them.
There is also a famous story on the question of whether the philosophical question really exists. It was an interesting affair between Wittgenstein and Popper. Popper, the founder of the philosophy of science, proposed that "falsifiability" is the dividing line and criterion between science and non-science. On one occasion, Popper was invited to a lecture by the Moral Science Club of Cambridge University, and Popper's lecture was titled: Is There a Real Philosophical Problem? Now in Popper's view, the problem existed, and the topic was also directed at Wittgenstein, and in the speech the two men had a heated argument, and Wittgenstein asked Popper to give an example of a philosophical problem.
Popper said: Is it possible to know things through feelings? Is knowledge available through induction? Wittgenstein argues that both are logical, not philosophical. Popper again posed the question of "infinity," which Wittgenstein considered to be a mathematical problem, not a philosophical one. Popper raised the question of "ethics" again, and at this time Wittgenstein, casually holding up a fire stick in the furnace, pointed it at Popper and said: Please give a real ethical question? Popper insisted that this was a real ethical issue, and said: Don't threaten a visiting guest with a fire stick. Wittgenstein was furious when he heard this, threw down the fire stick and left, which is famous: "The fire stick incident"
In Wittgenstein's view, there is no real philosophical problem, and the philosophical problem here actually refers to those vague and unclear propositions, and Wittgenstein believes that all problems can be said clearly, and what cannot be said is not a problem, and the work of philosophy is to clarify the problems that can be said clearly. In Wittgenstein's view, the purpose of philosophical research is not to establish its own system of thought, but to propose a series of explanations, and in the preface to Philosophical Studies, he calls his philosophical work "investigation" rather than "research", and that the work of philosophy is to discover the truth, not to create it. The "language game theory" proposed in "Philosophical Studies" is also in the same vein.
Well, wittgenstein's main philosophical ideas, we will introduce here, Wittgenstein is one of the greatest philosophies of the 20th century, his ideas gave us two great shocks, the first time wittgenstein proposed: philosophy is the speculation of language, and language has its boundaries. And Wittgenstein shows us where the boundaries of the world are, and the boundaries of logic are the boundaries of the world. And beyond the borders, although there is a vast world, we are not within the scope of logic, we cannot speak, so he said: For what cannot be said, we must remain silent.
The second time was wittgenstein who bravely overturned the idea of the first half of his life, that language has no essence, that the world has no so-called boundaries, that language is just a game, that the world is not precise and absolute, but vague and crude. The more carefully we look at the actual language, he says, the more intense the conflict between it and our needs becomes. The conflict has become unbearable, and that demand is now in danger of being frustrated. We walked on the ice, where there was no friction, so the conditions were ideal in a sense, but it was precisely because of this that we could not walk. We want to walk, so we need friction. Get back on the rough ground!
Thus, he overthrew a logical rigor, a pure and absolute world of language that he had built with his own hands, and let language answer wittgenstein's attitude toward philosophy in everyday life, which was admirable. In fact, whether it is Wittgenstein's early or late thoughts, it is just a seed, a ladder. As Wittgenstein said: Anyone who knows me will eventually realize that my proposition is meaningless. These examples are just the ladders he uses to climb, and when he has surpassed them, he must abandon this ladder. He must transcend these propositions before he can see the world correctly.
Well, that's all for today, and I'll continue to share Wittgenstein's philosophical ideas, and if you like my article, please pay attention to "Little Broadcast Reading", which we'll see in the next article.