PHILOSOPHY PATHWAYS Issue 217

I.'Wittgenstein on 'The Realm of Ineffable'' by Manoranjan Mallick and Vikram S. Sirola

III. ''Being Wittgenstein': Insinuating Ethics, Aesthetics and Religion in the Silence of Wittgenstein' by David Khomdram

What is Knowledge? This Issue of Philosophy Pathways is devoted to the early philosophical work of Ludwig Wittgenstein -- the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which he believed at the time, to have solved this Philosophical problem. Here, Wittgenstein arguably developed a Theory that only propositional statements that expressed facts about objects in the World can provide knowledge for human beings. That which cannot be so 'pictured' -- Ethics, Metaphysics, Religion and Aesthetics -- cannot provide knowledge and are literally, on his criteria, 'non-sensical'. However, whilst the 'non-sensical' or inexpressible cannot be stated, it could be 'shown'.

The following papers aim to show that meaning is not restricted to Propositional Language:

Manoranjan Mallick and Vikram S. Sirola argue that the 'Ineffable', being beyond the world of Propositional statements, provides scope for the important 'truths' offered by Mysticism and Metaphysics.

Although Wittgenstein wrote little about Ethics in his Tractatus, Rajkumar Modak maintains that what he terms an 'Ethical Supernaturalism' is discernable, it being transcendental to Propositional statements.

Finally, David Khomdram shows the activity of being in the lived, human world. A being in, which cannot be restricted to the limits of Propositional logic but which, as phenomena show themselves, is infinitely richer.

I. 'WITTGENSTEIN ON 'THE REALM OF INEFFABLE'' BY MANORANJAN MALLICK AND VIKRAM S. SIROLA

The paper attempts to delve into the distinction Wittgenstein makes between factual discourse and moral thoughts. It can be linked with the basic distinction made between facts and values, which have been a debatable issue over the centuries from pre-Socrates to analytic period. In order to accumulate new knowledge about the essence of world we require metaphysical investigation. Metaphysical inquiry is to do with 'what is real' or 'what is the essence of reality' [...]

Wittgenstein's approach towards ethics would have remained undiscovered had he not claimed in a letter to his publisher, Ludwig Ficker that Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (TLP) was an ethical book; although all most all the points discussed in this book belonged to the domain of philosophy of logic. Only a few lines in this book from 6.4 through 6.54 are used for ethics. While in Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein is not interested at all to discuss anything about ethics, in his 'A Lecture on Ethics' he has delivered few lines which are all about the status of ethics and ethical judgments [...]

III. ''BEING WITTGENSTEIN': INSINUATING ETHICS, AESTHETICS AND RELIGION IN THE SILENCE OF WITTGENSTEIN' BY DAVID KHOMDRAM

The paper is not simply a paper but an activity where the writer is taking part as doing philosophy in such a way that - with a wee amount of regret - it could have been done by Wittgenstein. The paper acknowledges the writings of Wittgenstein not as a theory but as an activity that embraces the contingency and the inexplicability of the things of the world and the inability of philosophical structure and norms to harmonize with the events and facts of the world [...]

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