Math as God

[Jordan Harp]

You're right here, but the Tractatus does evince Wittgenstein's mysticism.
It's in a proposition just prior that says something like "There are things
that can be known that cannot be said." That is the mystical, and it's there
whether or not one can sensible express it.

Jordan

On 11/18/07, Page <page at quesnelbc.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the nice summary of Hegel. However, Schuyler (your reference
> below) makes a mistake in his reading of the Tractatus. He refers to
> proposition 7--the final proposition of the Tractatus, "Whereof one cannot
> speak, thereof one must remain silent"--and claims it evinces
> Wittgenstein's
> mysticism. We cannot speak about things like aesthetics or ethics because
> sentences one cannot map on to the world of facts--proposition 1 of the
> Tractatus, "The world is everything that is the case"--is, literally
> nonsense (non-sense). The nonsense is based on Wittgenstein's logical
> atomism, not on his purported mysticism.
>
> If you really want to make your brain hurt, contemplate (the fact that)
> one
> of the propositions of the Tractatus (sorry, I do not have the reference
> in
> front of me) is the claim that anyone who understands the Tractatus will
> realize that every proposition in it is false.
>
> [Two stories about Wittgenstein. At some point Russell asked G.E. Moore
> what
> he thought of Wittgenstein's intelligence. Moore replied, "I think he is
> [roughly] exceedingly bright. Russell: Why? Moore: Because he is the only
> student at my lectures who looks puzzled; On another occasion Russell
> asked
> Moore if he thought L.W. was a genius. Moore replied that he did but that
> Cambridge ought to give him a Ph.D. anyway.]
>
> Page
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 3:09 PM
> Subject: Math as God
>
>
> > Please bear with me as I explain Hegel's philosophy.
> > Excuse me, stumbled on this while searching for an answer to:
> > "Well, What Dooooooo you believe in---MR.. RUSSELL!?!?!?
> >
> > RUSSELL, WITTGENSTEIN, AND LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS
> > Grant Schuyler
> >
> > Please bear with me as I explain Hegel's philosophy.
> >
> > Hegel thought that Geist (German, "mind" or "spirit"; thought of not
> only
> > as a mental faculty or abstract force but almost as a person) had
> advanced
> > through the successive cultures of history growing more and more
> > conscious, self-conscious, and rational. This process had culminated in
> > Geist's realization as what Hegel called the Absolute Idea (Geist in
> > another guise, perhaps as God). God or the Absolute Idea had realized
> > itself as the best contemporary, that is, the best 1820s European,
> > philosophy and political culture. By implication, the philosophers,
> > philosophy, and political and cultural systems of Hegel's time were the
> > best that had ever existed, the realization of complete liberty, and the
> > goal of all history. And the philosophic method of the philosophers of
> > Hegel's time -- reason (Verstand), was somehow superior (it was implied)
> > to the method of thinking used by ordinary people and scientists. In
> > contrast to philosophical reason, these lesser beings used the (by impl!
> > ication
> > inferior) mental faculty most philosophers since Locke call
> understanding
> > (Vernunft).
> >
> > "A tidy system it was," said Russell in 1959. "Once we [Moore and
> himself]
> > applied rigorous logic to Hegel, he became fragmentary and puerile."
> >
> > Having rejected Hegelian absolute idealism, Russell looked for a new
> basis
> > on which to have the absolutely certain knowledge of the world that
> Hegel
> > had believed his philosophic system delivered.
> >
> > Russell thought that one might discover the basis of certainty in
> > mathematics
> >
> > http://home.ca.inter.net/~grantsky/wittgenstein.html
> >
> >
> >
> > --
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> > 18/11/2007 5:15 PM
> >
> >
>
>
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