Ludwig Wittgenstein

 James Currie  

Section 8  

Ludwig Wittgenstein 

 

The topic of him caught my attention when the point was brought up by Epicurus that death isn’t a point in life because events are something we experience with our senses. And like the time before we were born we can’t have any recollection of the time before we were born. I’ve recently heard sleeping be compared to death since you are not actively perceiving your 5 senses. It would be impossible to experience after. It puts something in perspective to me. That the lives we live are nothing but perceived reality. It is only as real as we make it. We are nothing more than the signals sent to our brain from the 5 senses.  

Ludwig interests me because he was called unusual. The book he wrote, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was split in “sections” and was written to identify the relationship between language and reality and define the limits of society. What interested me was the excerpt from A Little History of Philosophy, “language leads philosophers into all sorts of confusion.”  Which I wouldn’t exclude “regular” people from that either. This is something I have come to realize, as I’m sure we all have, when our mouths fall short of the point we are trying to get across. I think of words like a middle man between people. Between complicated, deep, meaningful, emotional creatures. Even with all the words I believe they still fall short of the (complex) vastness that we experience in silence in our minds.  Words are our only way to get across to other people and if we aren’t properly equipped to do that. It limits us and it is just as complex itself. Word's meanings are pretty much subjective since you could break words down to sounds that allow our brains to create a picture, an understanding, to communicate to each other. A little of topic but, I was recently listening to an audiobook and it told a story of Heraclitus and Aristotle. Aristotle walks up on Heraclitus and Heraclitus says “don’t disturb me I’m very busy doing important work”. Aristotle replies “what could you be doing that’s so important?” Heraclitus points to a small hole he has dug in the sand and said I am emptying the ocean into this hole, only using a spoon. Aristotle laughs and says “that is ridiculous, do you know how vast the ocean is, maybe if you had a bucket you would stand a chance but you will never be able to empty the entire ocean in this small hole you have dug”. Heraclitus throws down his spoon and asks Aristotle, “what are you trying to do, do you know how vast this existence is? It could contain a billion oceans or more and you are trying to empty it into your head, give it up it is ridiculous”. I share that story to say, words can’t explain existence fully. It’s too vast, “thought can’t be bigger than life” - Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev  

You don’t have to listen to all of the video, but I thought it was interesting. Ludwig Wittenstein