<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br>
<div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of course, you understand what he meant by this?<br><br>That which can be expressed, can be done so precisely; to a mathematically perfect degree. This is what he has done in the written Tractatus. Logic and the modes of human expression are finite and thus definable.<br><br>That which cannot be so expressed (eg, the truths of ethics, religion etc...those which become manifest through a person's whole world and cannot be constrained to a mere linguistic utterance), we should not even attempt to speak about for we will only be able to lead further away from true understanding about it. This is what he wrote not about, but hoped to demonstrate through a process of showing rather than explaining.<br><br>It is precisely this second part
which
is the most important - Wittgenstein claimed that the Tractatus had solved all the problems of logic and philosophy, and made evident how little was accomplished by doing this. For, the real problems of life are those which <span style="font-style: italic;">cannot</span> be discussed and dissected so easily: they are the religious and the ethical. The 'spiritual' concerns of man, if you will.<br><br>Mike<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Lee Corbin <lcorbin@rawbw.com><br>To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br>Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 6:24:33 AM<br>Subject: [ExI] Wittgenstein's Other, More Important Work<br><br>
Ludwig wrote<br><br>----- Original Message ----- <br>From: Ludwig Wittgenstein <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ludwigw@WienerKreis.de" target="_blank" href="mailto:ludwigw@WienerKreis.de">ludwigw@WienerKreis.de</a>><br>To: Ludwig Ficker <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ludwigficker@WienerKreis.de" target="_blank" href="mailto:ludwigficker@WienerKreis.de">ludwigficker@WienerKreis.de</a>><br>Cc: <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:lcorbin@rawbw.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:lcorbin@rawbw.com">lcorbin@rawbw.com</a>; <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:mschlicht@ViennaCircle.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:mschlicht@ViennaCircle.com">mschlicht@ViennaCircle.com</a><br>Sent: November 7, 1919 2:38 PM<br>Subject: The Line I Should Have Written in Tractatus Preface<br><br>> [Regarding Tractatus] the book's point is an ethical one. I once<br>> meant to include in the preface a sentence which is not in fact<br>> there now, but
which I will write out for you here, because<br>> it will perhaps be a key to the work for you. What I meant<br>> to
write, then, was this: My work consists of two parts: the<br>> one presented here plus all that I have not written. And<br>> *it is precisely this second part that is the important one*.<br>> My book draws limits to the sphere of the ethical from the<br>> inside, as it were, and I am convinced that this is the<br>> ONLY rigorous way of drawing those limits. <br><br>[Janik & Toulmin, 1973,. p. 192, as I quote from<br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/%7Echip/pubs/speaking.shtml">http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip/pubs/speaking.shtml</a>]<br><br>Good heavens! What an *out*! Why didn't any author before<br>Wittgenstein have the witt to have thought of this!? For, not only<br>do we have to credit Wittgenstein with what he did say, but we<br>must also credit him for all the unfathomable wisdom in what<br>he did *not* say! Indeed, the man was a
genius.<br><br>Lee<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>extropy-chat mailing list<br><a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a><br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a><br></div><br></div></div><br>
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