Witti-Buch2 2001.qxd - Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

Saurabh Sanatani
If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness,
then he lives eternally who lives in the present. [TLP 6.4311].
In order to live happily I must be in agreement with the world. And that is what
"being happy" means. [NB 8.7.16]
The early view of sub specie aeternitis was later dropped by Wittgenstein in favour
of an Übersichtliche Darstellung (commanding a clear view) as a guiding Weltbild.
(Genova 1995)
In short, the early writings although coming closer to the problems of human life,
can not be taken as clear injunctions to an individual. It seems in the end, every man
must learn according to his lights to be his own philosopher.
Wittgenstein's Ethics
Moore: Ethics is the general enquiry into what is good.
Wittgenstein: Ethics is the enquiry into the meaning of life.
According to Wittgenstein the Tractatus was not primarily a treatise on philosophy
of logic or philosophy of language. As he wrote to Paul Engelmann , the point of the
book was an ethical one, namely to delimit 'the Ethical' from within by remaining silent
about it. (Glock 1996) Ethics was much more important than logic, but nothing ethical
could be said, it was transcendental. Ethics covered questions on meaning of life.
Wittgenstein's ethics, being transcendental and inexpressible, cannot be compared
to what we normally understand under ethics and morals , injunctions about what is
good, how to behave. Nevertheless in private life he was scrupulously a man of principle
leading an ascetic life shorn of all luxury. The only moral injunction we find in
Wittgenstein is : be happy. [NB 30.7.16]. Features of Wittgenstein's mysticism can be
described as (Glock 1996)
-'the problem of life' which remains untouched even if all scientific problems
have ..been solved [TLP 6.43]
-.contemplating the world sub specie aeterni.[TLP 6.45]
- accepting the world as it is.
- the idea that death is unreal [TLP 6.43]
Wittgenstein's answer to the problem of life is, as indicated above, God. (NB
11.6.16) Contemplating the world from the outside as a limited whole and accepting the
world as it is without trying to change it, leads to a stoic attitude with which to face the
miseries of the world, including one's own, with a detachment and a happy eye,
wondering at the mere existence of the world, leaving everything as it is. Wittgenstein
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