The Solution Of The Problem Of Life

Alan Watts / audio 1:45 ~1 MB opus 92 kb/s

This short clip is a straightforward reading of the closing propositions of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, roughly sections 6.521 through 7. It opens on the idea that the solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of that problem, and that those who finally see life's sense clearly cannot say what that sense consists in, since it is inexpressible and shows itself only mystically. From there it states Wittgenstein's proposed method for philosophy: say only what can be said, the propositions of natural science, and whenever someone attempts to speak metaphysically, show him that he has given no meaning to the signs in his own propositions. The reading then turns to the famous image of the ladder, describing the propositions of the Tractatus itself as elucidations that the reader must climb up through and then discard, since anyone who understands them will recognize them as senseless once they have served their purpose of letting him see the world rightly. It closes on the book's final line, that whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. At under two minutes, the piece functions less as commentary than as a plain recitation of Wittgenstein's own conclusion about the limits of language and the unsayable.

transcriptmachine-transcribed, unedited

The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of this problem. Is not this

the reason why men to whom after long doubting the sense of life became clear could not then

say where in this sense consisted? There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself. It is the

mystical. The right method of philosophy would be this, to say nothing except what can be said, i.e.

the propositions of natural science, i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy. And then

always when someone else wished to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had

given no meaning to certain signs in his propositions. This method would be unsatisfying

to the other. He would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy, but it would be

the only strictly correct method. My propositions are elucidatory in this way. He who understands

me finally recognizes them as senseless. When he has climbed out through them, on them, over them,

he must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up on it. He must surmount

these propositions. Then he sees the world rightly. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be

silent.

from the country side.