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- GenresPhilosophy
102 pages
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 5, 2022
An investigation and analysis of Wittgenstein’s philosophy and its implications for religious belief. Professor Hudson has done a most important task with the clarity and organised exposition one expects from a philosopher.
Wittgenstein was arguably, the most important philosopher of the 20th Century, although he would have hated that designation, as being without meaning, even by the standards of Wittgenstein 2.0. The author examines the two philosophical stages of Wittgenstein (of The Tractatus, of the Philosophical Investigations), as well as what else Wittgenstein himself said about religion.
In essence religion is a large, extended language game with its particular meanings in context, its own grammar (the logic of the game) and this particular game is a way of life, of being in the world. To understand this is to see that religious belief is rational, coherent, but only if you embrace this way of life. Otherwise you cannot refute it any more than the ocean can refute the mountain. As for the mystical, in his Tractatus he gave the only sensible answer: What you cannot express (have words for, as a picture with a referent/subject) you must be silent about. Wittgenstein believed that other modes of human expression (visual art, music, poetry, perhaps even how one lives) may better reveal or give a sense of the mystical.
I think Wittgenstein spent a lot of time when a teacher, living amongst simpler folk, listening to their ordinary conversation as people of faith and this informed his conception of language games/ways of living/being in the world.
He had an instinct for the transcendent inside the material form of an engineer/logician who worked out the limits of language in philosophy. What was sayable and what was not. A truly amazing and important philosopher.
Wittgenstein was arguably, the most important philosopher of the 20th Century, although he would have hated that designation, as being without meaning, even by the standards of Wittgenstein 2.0. The author examines the two philosophical stages of Wittgenstein (of The Tractatus, of the Philosophical Investigations), as well as what else Wittgenstein himself said about religion.
In essence religion is a large, extended language game with its particular meanings in context, its own grammar (the logic of the game) and this particular game is a way of life, of being in the world. To understand this is to see that religious belief is rational, coherent, but only if you embrace this way of life. Otherwise you cannot refute it any more than the ocean can refute the mountain. As for the mystical, in his Tractatus he gave the only sensible answer: What you cannot express (have words for, as a picture with a referent/subject) you must be silent about. Wittgenstein believed that other modes of human expression (visual art, music, poetry, perhaps even how one lives) may better reveal or give a sense of the mystical.
I think Wittgenstein spent a lot of time when a teacher, living amongst simpler folk, listening to their ordinary conversation as people of faith and this informed his conception of language games/ways of living/being in the world.
He had an instinct for the transcendent inside the material form of an engineer/logician who worked out the limits of language in philosophy. What was sayable and what was not. A truly amazing and important philosopher.
March 22, 2014
As intriguing and potentially helpful as this booklet it, I'm not sure it really fulfills the promise of the subtitle. Wittgenstein has no intention of connecting his philosophical output to religious thinking, though he seems fairly accepting of people who have it (which is awfully decent of him). Wittgenstein is certainly a tricky fellow to grasp, especially since he spent the latter half of his output refuting the first half of his output. Hudson provides a fairly helpful overview of major ideas, but a good deal of the end is spent somewhat hastily attempting to establish Wittgenstein as a "maker of modern theology," since that is the series in which this booklet appears. Hudson does present some ideas worth pondering, but their connection to Wittgenstein's philosophy appear tenuous to me - though I am rather a tyro in the realm of Wittgenstein. Hudson's book could potentially serve the same function as a prose summary before a canto in the Inferno or book of Paradise Lost: read it first, get a grasp of the basic idea, read the chapter, then go back and read the summary to cement within yourself what it is you just read. Similarly, Hudson could be read before one ventures into Wittgenstein's work, then read the Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations, then read Hudson again. Perhaps other introductions to Wittgenstein may be more helpful, but Hudson's commitment to framing Wittgenstein within a religious/theological realm (even if it is against W's wishes) is intriguing enough to engage in as a reader. Track this installment (and the rest of the series) down and give it a try.
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