MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE, LANGUAGE AND TRUTH Philosophical Investigations after Wittgenstein

Abstract

Wittgenstein famously concluded his early work, the Tractatus Logico Ph ilosophicus, 'What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence' (TLP 7).1 In its Preface, he remarked, 'What can be said at all can be said clearly.' He was, however, very clear that 'There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself; it is the mystical' (TLP 6.522). The positivists rejected Wittgenstein's mystical realm as nonsense and, consequently, as of no concern because they accepted wholeheartedly Wittgenstein's assertion that 'The totality of true propositions is the whole of natural science' (TLP 4.11). According to them, the questions of metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind are better addressed by physics, physiology and psychology respectively and the concerns of social and political philosophy were better left to sociology and political science.