Below is a fascinating excerpt from a BBC program on Wittgenstein's spirituality. Wittgenstein was born in Vienna in 1889 and died in Cambridge in 1951. I am using Wittgenstein for a research project I am involved in. For educational scholars, Wittgenstein has some affinity given that in 1920 he completed his training as an elementary school teacher and went to work at a primary school in Lower Austria, where he continued to work as a teacher until 1926. He had been trained in the methods of the Austrian school reform movement, which rejected rote learning and focused instead on developing the child’s curiosity, on encouraging independent thought and on using practical exercises to allow the child to make their own discoveries (McGinn, 1997, p. 3). However, it is as a philosopher that Wittgenstein is best known. As Goldstein (1999) notes, Wittgenstein was one of the central figures (many would say he was the central figure) in twentieth century philosophy (p. 1). His specialty was specifically centered on the philosophy of language, its interpretation and meaning. He was a philosopher fully grounded in the empirical world of language. Wittgenstein doubted that it is possible to have thoughts without language. “When I think in language, there aren’t ‘meanings’ going through my mind in addition to the verbal expressions: the language is itself the vehicle of thought” (Wittgenstein, 1958, p. 108). As McGinn (1997, p. 12) explains, for Wittgenstein, language is both a source of philosophical problems, leading to cognitive dissonance and also the means to overcome them. Language is a philosophical problem because we want to uncover what a particular word means, what it represents, and herein lies the problem.
In this presentation, Wittgenstein begins with some familiar terms in spirituality and ethics; God, soul, and mind. One of the problems, says Wittgenstein, is that we take a substantive to correspond to a thing. The words soul and mind have been used as if they actually stand for a thing. What is a soul is a misleading question. And so, asks the narrator, what will happen to morality and religion? Wittgenstein has a deep respect for religion practice but not theory. He thinks of religious beliefs not as factual "things" but the job they do in shaping our lives. Wittgenstein said that it is not how the world is that is mystical, it is the fact that it is. We should renounce the pomps and vanities of the world and this includes grand explanoratory solutions. Wittgenstein believed that the answer to the riddles of life lies in the dissapearance of the question! He forces us to return to the ethical reality of the every day. When we see that our common life is all there is, that realization is religon. His view is very down to earth and very agnostic. We can only see how religion shapes our life and that is all, not whether it is "true" in a propositional sense. Belief requires conversion of life, truthfullness, and inner integrity. He is equally clear that this is all that needs to be said. We must be cured of speculative, metaphysical questions because all we can know is what appears before us. Is this a mysticism of the every day or a religious agnosticism, or is this, as it always was, the truth of the matter?
Good source of reflection and springboard for spirituality.
In this presentation, Wittgenstein begins with some familiar terms in spirituality and ethics; God, soul, and mind. One of the problems, says Wittgenstein, is that we take a substantive to correspond to a thing. The words soul and mind have been used as if they actually stand for a thing. What is a soul is a misleading question. And so, asks the narrator, what will happen to morality and religion? Wittgenstein has a deep respect for religion practice but not theory. He thinks of religious beliefs not as factual "things" but the job they do in shaping our lives. Wittgenstein said that it is not how the world is that is mystical, it is the fact that it is. We should renounce the pomps and vanities of the world and this includes grand explanoratory solutions. Wittgenstein believed that the answer to the riddles of life lies in the dissapearance of the question! He forces us to return to the ethical reality of the every day. When we see that our common life is all there is, that realization is religon. His view is very down to earth and very agnostic. We can only see how religion shapes our life and that is all, not whether it is "true" in a propositional sense. Belief requires conversion of life, truthfullness, and inner integrity. He is equally clear that this is all that needs to be said. We must be cured of speculative, metaphysical questions because all we can know is what appears before us. Is this a mysticism of the every day or a religious agnosticism, or is this, as it always was, the truth of the matter?
Good source of reflection and springboard for spirituality.
RSS Feed
