[Wittrs] Note on a recent reading ('On Wittgenstein' by Hintikka)
- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Wittgenstein's Aftermath" <wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 21:38:40 -0700
I wanted to make a note or two regarding my most recent reading.
Jaakko Hintikka's 'On Wittgenstein' (Wadsworth Philosophers Series,
2000).
On pg 15 he takes up Wittgenstein's "The world of the happy is quite
other than that of the unhappy."
What's amazing to me is how he brings in a moral judgement against the
unhappy, as if they were in some way inferior:
"If we simply add to these Moorean conclusions the Wittgensteinian
idea that the objects that constitute the substance of my world are
the object of my experience, we must conclude literally that the
unhappy philistine has different objects in his world than my object
of experience."
How did the attribute "philistine" creep in here. There's the
implication the unhappy cannot experience beauty.
I'm sorry, but if your beautiful daughter or wife is suffering an
early demise and there's nothing you can do, then indeed your world is
an unhappy place, but not because you're a philistine.
Hintikka's portrayal of the unhappy world seems so devoid of
compassion that I almost don't want to read any more of his book. Why
should I trust him?
The last thing we need is the "happy people" feeling morally superior
to boot -- how do they live with themselves?
I'll keep going though. He's a good writer. I'll forgive him this
lapse into bad philosophy.
Kirby
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