Ludwig Wittgenstein and God
Selected scholars consider Ludwig Wittgenstein an agnostic, others a Christian; many more, including atheists, feel that he rejected God. Wittgenstein had all his children baptized and the quotes below are noteworthy.
Religion appears to be walking on air … No longer rest your weight on the earth, but suspend yourself from heaven (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
Christianity is not a theory but a description of what actually takes place … salvation by grace (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
God grant the philosophers insight of what lies in front of everyone’s eyes (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
If what we do now makes no difference in the end, then all the seriousness of life is done away with (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
Within Christianity it’s as though God says to men: Don’t act out a tragedy, that is to say, don’t enact heaven and hell on earth. Heaven and hell are my affair (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
The meaning of the world lays outside the world; the meaning of the world we can call God (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
Saint Paul said, “I die daily” – just think what that must have meant (Ludwig Wittgenstein).
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SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY
- R. Monk (1990), Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Duty of Genius, Free Press.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1972), Lectures on Religious Belief, in Lectures & Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, University of Calif. Press, pp. 53-54.
- Wittgenstein (1964), Philosophische Bemerkungen, Basil Blackwell, vorwort.
- Wittgenstein (1998), Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep, vorwort.
- Wittgenstein (1965), ‘A Lecture on Ethics’, The Philosophical Review 71(1), p. 9.
- Wittgenstein (1979), Bemerkungen über Frazers Golden Bough / Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, The Brynmill Press, p. 1.
- R. Rhees (1970), Discussions of Wittgenstein, Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 94.
- A.C. Grayling (1996), Wittgenstein, Oxford University Press, 2 and H.J. Glock (1996), A Wittgenstein Dictionary, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 320-323).
Mike, Wittgenstein and Van Til have been compared before. How would you compare them?
Chuck: Both had recent W. European back grounds and the writings of both are often considered difficult to understand. LW came out with some epistemic nuggets that have potent impact on modern thought although it could be argued he did not furnish a full-orbed worldview that could be utilized by the average man (early LW or late LW); others might suggest that early LW (ELW) and possibly even late LW (LLW) provide startling meta-worldviews. Moreover, there are countless interpretations of LW, ELW, and LLW—so it makes things a bit perplexing.
Unlike LW, Van Til unambiguously professed Christian theism (so he avoided the constant thoughts of suicide and borderline-lunacy that LW suffered) and he offered a comprehensive worldview (WV) from Scripture that is for all men. His WV is simple and powerful and easy to employ.
There are very few interpretations of VT (plus some extensions) and even the few diverse analyses of VT are largely in agreement over God, man, the world, sin, afterlife, and all the important issues of life.
VT, contrasting with all others, pressed the truth that only God revealed in Scripture can provide the universal operational features of human thinking and experience.
Have you read much LW?
Who is your favorite Christian philosopher? and your fav non-Christian thinker/
Even though I haven’t read much LW, he is one of my favorite non-Christian (if he is) philosophers along with Plato, Kant, Bradley and Bosanquet, Heidegger, Strawson, BonJour, and Robert Stern. Quine and Derrida a little bit.
Christians: Augustine, Anselm, Pascal, Kuyper, Van Til, Bahnsen, and grudgingly Plantinga.
My favorite of all is Van Til!
Yours?
Frege, Hume, and Kant are some of those I can utilize selected true ideas and properly place them w/i a Christian worldview.