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Culture and Value

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This book was published in 1980. In 1998 the editors and translator produced a beautiful new edition providing more context for the passages and an improved translation. It was published by Blackwell in the UK (ISBN 0631205713), but has still not been released in the US. Why? If you are really interested in Wittgenstein you should search that ISBN on Amazon, because there are occasionally used copies that you can order (at a premium) from abroad.

This collection of Wittgenstein's "remarks" written over a time period of forty years was first published as "Vermischte Bemerkungen" in the original German in 1977. These remarks are taken from his private manuscripts and diaries, which were finally translated into English in 1980.

As a vast majority of Wittgenstein's manuscripts or notebooks were written with no intent by the author for publication, it makes one wonder how the philosopher would feel about this book. He comments on a vast array of subjects from architecture, Shakespeare and music. And, of course, his philosophical musings, some remarks actually taken from his famous text, Philosophical Investigations.

It would be helpful if the reader had some previous knowledge of Wittgenstein's work and life before embarking on this text, however, I don't believe it to be absolutely essential. Surprisingly, numerous remarks throughout the text can stand alone on their own merit without contextualization. On the other hand, these remarks can also contribute to a greater understanding of Wittgenstein's philosophy, thus, in the end, Culture and Value is an excellent addition to the Wittgenstein Corpus.

I've come to understand that reading Wittgenstein is about a process of thought, a new method of thinking about our language and the world. Wittgenstein is not about a theory of reality but a process of thinking, asking different questions, never taking anything for granted, always pushing against conventional wisdom, pushing thought to its limits. At times these "aphorisms" can communicate as nonsense, ephemeral, disconnected, etc, but reading them slowly, immersing oneself into them, can produce some interesting results.

One of my favourite aphorisms: "Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself."

Or one of his descriptions of genius: "There is no more light in a genius than in any other honest man - but he has a particular kind of lens to concentrate this light into a burning point."

Reading Wittgenstein's remarks gives us a point of entry into his essential concerns as a philosopher and a human being. In fact the last remarks were written in 1951, the year of his death.

Culture and Value is that type of philosophical text that can be picked up occasionally over many years and one will continue to find stimulus for thought.

Both the fragmentary presentation of these remarks as well as their deeply personal nature remind one very much of Pascal, to whom, along with Plato, Augustine, and Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein deserves to be compared, moreso than Russell or any of the analytic philosophers (and this includes Wittgenstein's *Tractatus* period!).

The great virtue of this book is that one can open the book to just about anywhere are find a dazzling thought, whether about Goethe, mathematics, God, etc. However, that same virtue proves to be the book's main vice: one cannot read the book expecting a 'flow' that one might find reading novels or more composed philosophical texts -- although, of course, one must keep in mind that pretty much all of Wittgenstein's later writings are like this. Indeed, there is probably no satisfying way to arrange these or any of his other writings: as the editors say, the chronological arrangement they chose is the only way to avoid distorting what Wittgenstein wrote. I suppose, then, my complaint is more against Wittgenstein's reclusiveness than against the editors of this volume.

As for the book itself: whether you agree or disagree with him, Wittgenstein's profundity cannot be doubted, even on non-analytic subjects such as are treated in the book. In fact, there are several places, e.g. his discussions of Christianity, that bear a great resemblance to his discussions of language, namely: his attempts to explain something that he admits cannot be explained. Wittgenstein, despite all his efforts, could not become a believing Christian; nevertheless he demonstrates a deep understanding of Christianity's meaning, how it defies all rational explanation. As he puts it: "If Christianity is the truth then all the philosophy that has been written about it is false." This resembles very much Wittgenstein's insistance in the *Investigations* that we give up trying to give a uniform definition of language and instead describe (and describe, and describe) the various language-games.

Finally, I would recommend to anybody interested in this book that he also look up Wittgenstein's analytic writings (Blue and Brown Books, Investigations, On Certainty, etc.): as I have said, his thoughts on language and his thoughts on other matters inform each other. Even a summary of his analytic philosophy, I think, would be sufficient.

Not a "work of philosophy" but, rather, a compilation of his more personal and/or less philosophical personal jottings from 1914 to the end of his life in 1951, this little book is worth taking up if you are fascinated by Wittgenstein and his thought. However, it will disappoint anyone coming to it for a detailed analysis of many of those issues (religion, art, morality) that his major works do not delve into more extensively. All we are offered here is an uneven scattering of personal remarks and truncated observations over the course of one very significant philosopher's life. Sometimes the remarks are extremely enlightening. More often they are too cryptic or personal or vague to offer much insight into the man and his ideas. Moreover, there are some musings here that are decidedly personal, making me uncomfortable just to be reading them. Peter Winch, who did the compilation, notes he excluded anything of too personal a nature but, given what got through, I can only conclude that the other stuff must have been doozies. Here we see Wittgenstein castigating himself as a sinner, unworthy to be saved, as he struggles to understand and re-subscribe to the Catholicism of his youth. While such information is of great interest to those of us who have been deeply affected by his philosophical work, throwing light on the driving forces which affected his thought, I was left feeling profoundly uncomfortable, reading things I suspect he never would have wanted to see the light of day. In the end, this book offered me more of a view into the man, Wittgenstein, than into his ideas about cultural issues . . . the reason I'd come to the book in the first place. And Wittgenstein seems a smaller man, and his ideas somewhat less substantial to me, for having read this book. Still, I'm not sorry I did. Better to understand a man than be awed by a giant. -- SWM

A hugely enjoyable collection of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's comments about art, music, language, culture, Jewish life, religion in general, and a number of other topics. These writings were certainly never intended to be published, and one gets the slightly uncomfortable (though pleasurable) impression that Wittgenstein would not want them to be read. It's not in the same league as his more serious woks of philosophy, but it's an excellent way to understand his views on more earthly topics. The book is divided into dated quotes, and they're almost all interesting, and sometimes quite bizarre. I'll leave you with some of his insights:

"Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie."

"The problems of life are insoluble on the surface and can only be solved in depth. They are insoluble in surface dimensions."

"Genius is what makes us forget the master's talent."

"Genius is what makes us forget skill."

"Language sets everyone the same traps; it is an immense network of easily accessible wrong turnings. And so we watch one man after another walking down the same paths and we know in advance where he will branch off, where walk straight on without noticing the side turning, etc. etc. What I have to do then is erect signposts at all the junctions where there are wrong turnings so as to help people past the danger points."

"Culture and Value" is a fascinating compilation of tidbits on art, religion and culture by the great 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein grew up in the culture milieu of Vienna. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had self-destructed in WWI, but Vienna was still a center of culture and philosophy. Wittgenstein absorbed culture readily- Brahms had played for his family, Freud and Jung debated psychoanalysis in Viennese coffee shops. It was one of the epicenters of 20th century philosophy.

"Culture and Value" is a compilation of Wittgenstein's personal quotations. Wittgenstein struggled with his Jewishness, Christianity, and being gay. He was an extremely conflicted man, and this book shows it. He saw himself as an unforgivable sinner. He wrote his own confessions. He was a fan of St. Augustine Confessions (Penguin Classics) along with Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy: Spiritual Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters). Tolstoy and Augustine were extremely ascetic. Augustine renounced a life of pleasure for a celibate one, who even denounced the marital embrace as "overthrowing man's reason." Tolstoy had been promiscuous as a youth, and after fathering several children with his wife, withheld the marital embrace from her to show his superiority. Wittgenstein struggled with his desires for natural human things-emotions, relationships- and his desire for the divine.

"Culture and Value" is a fascinating book. It shows that Wittgenstein's thinking was labyrinthine. He compares philosophers to children, and he had the capacity for childlike wonder. Wonder is, after all, the beginning of philosophy.

Poor Witters. Now people think he's "banal." (See the earlier Amazon reviewer). Enough suggestive morsals here to keep even the most jaded Wittgenstein junkie absorbed for years.

I read Wittgenstein's commentary found in this Culture & Value shortly after reading Einstein's The World As I see It, and there were obvious similarities to be found-- but what else could one expect from such creative intellects?

The commentaries of both are priceless, and truly help the reader in [i]seeing[/i] the world as these mammoth intellects did in the time on earth they shared. For there was much to be found akin these two in terms not only of time periods and political views, but religious sentiments and classical reverence.

What separated the two works is something I can only now say, and it is quite profound: Whereas Einstein made brilliant commentary of the present, Wittgenstein commented on the whole of Western Civilization-- and of its future, too.

It is easy to find in these short sentences the truth that W never was a Logical Positivist just as easily as it is to find in The Duty of Genius. CV was the first book I purchased in regards to W, foolishly thinking it was one of his works. However, I do not regret the purchase, as the words found therein are as priceless as any of his others.

As for the essentially LW, I would also highly recommend "The Vision of Wittgenstein" by H.L. Finch, as no other Author to date has grasped the man as well as Mr. Finch. Believe me, I've been through them all.

This is Wittgenstein's least interesting book, being only random notes dealing with art, music, religion and other areas of culture, taken from his notebooks over the course of his life. But W is never dull and it's a measure of the awe in which he is held that this book was even published. I can't imagine publishing such a book by anyone else,--certainly no philosopher.
Those interested in W should go to nearly any of the other 20,000 odd pages of his works (but NOT the Tractatus!)- but those with little acquaintance be forewarned, though W may seem a shallow tepid pool, if you jump in you may never stop swimming. You might wish to consult my other reviews such as that of Hofstadter's "I am a strange loop" for detailed comments on W and his revelations on language, thought and reality. Nearly all of W's writings are contained on a searchable CD issued by Blackwell and available for about $100 from Intelex while his vast and largely untranslated nachlass costs about $1000 on CD and another $1000 for the CD's with images of the 20,000 odd pages of the original manuscripts. However, like hundreds of other psychology books, they are also available via interlibrary loan or on p2p.
Although I've never seen anyone say so, W was a history making pioneer in cognitive and evolutionary psychology--the first person (and arguably one of the few to this day!) to see the structure of our innate intentional psychology. As a philosopher (armchair psychologist), all of his research was thought experiments and introspection. It is an easily defensible view that he is the greatest natural psychologist to date and nobody has ever matched his talent for describing the mind at work.
Nearly all the meatiest items from his papers have been culled for other works, and mostly the dregs remain for this book, but I have selected a few comments that seemed to me of general philosophical interest.
``There is no religious denomination in which the misuse of metaphysical expressions has been responsible for so much sin as it has in mathematics.``
``People say again and again that philosophy doesn't really progress, that we are still occupied with the same philosophical problems as were the Greeks. But the people who say this don't understand why is has to be so. It is because our language has remained the same and keeps seducing us into asking the same questions. As long as there continues to be a verb 'to be' that looks as if it functions in the same way as 'to eat' and 'to drink', as long as we still have the adjectives 'identical', 'true', 'false', 'possible', as long as we continue to talk of a river of time, of an expanse of space, etc., etc., people will keep stumbling over the same puzzling difficulties and find themselves staring at something which no explanation seems capable of clearing up. And what's more, this satisfies a longing for the transcendent, because, insofar as people think they can see `the limits of human understanding', they believe of course that they can see beyond these.``

``Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up 'whats that?` It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said `this is a man', 'this is a house', etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks `whats this then?'

'' A curious analogy could be based on the fact that even the hugest telescope has to have an eyepiece no bigger than the human eye.''

''The power of language has to make everything look the same, which is most glaringly evident in the dictionary and which makes the personification of time possible: something no less remarkable than would have been making divinities of the logical constants.``

``Philosophers say 'after death a timeless state will begin', or: 'at death a timeless state begins', and do not notice that they have used the words 'after', and 'it'and 'begins' in a temporal sense and that temporality is embedded in their grammar.``

''The queer resemblance between a philosphical investigation and (perhaps especially in mathematics) an aesthetic one. (E.g., what is bad about this garment, how should it be, etc.).

''Unshakeable faith (E.g., in a promise). Is it any less certain than being convinced of a mathematical truth? -But does that make the language games any more alike?''

``Nothing is more important for teaching us to understand the concepts we have than to construct fictitious ones.``

``It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.``

``Ambition is the death of thought.``

This is Wittgenstein's least interesting book, being only random notes dealing with art, music, religion and other areas of culture, taken from his notebooks over the course of his life. But W is never dull and its a measure of the awe in which he is held that such a book was even published. I can't imagine anyone publishing such a book by anyone else,--certainly no philosopher.

Anyone who is interested should go to nearly any of the other works(but NOT the Tractatus!)- but be forewarned, W may seem very shallow but if you jump in you may never stop swimming)!

Although I've never seen anyone say so, W can be regarded as a pioneer in cognitive psychology, though all of his research was thought experiments and introspection into the relations between language, thought and reality. Perhaps nobody ever approached his talent for describing the mind at work.

I picked out a few comments that happened to survive the culling to remove all the meatiest items for other works, and which seemed to me of general philosophical interest.

``There is no religious denomination in which the misuse of metaphysical expressions has been responsible for so much sin as it has in mathematics.``

``People say again and again that philosophy doesn't really progress, that we are still occupied with the same philosophical problems as were the Greeks. But the people who say this don't understand why is has to be so. It is because our language has remained the same and keeps seducing us into asking the same questions. As long as there continues to be a verb 'to be' that looks as if it functions in the same was as 'to eat' and 'to drink', as long as we still have the adjectives 'identical', 'true', 'false', 'possible', as long as we continue to talk of a river of time, of an expanse of space, etc., etc., people will keep stumbling over the same puzzling difficulties and find themselves staring at something which no explanation seems capable of clearing up. And what's more, this satisfies a longing for the transcendent, because, insofar as people think they can see `the limits of human understanding', they believe of course that they can see beyond these.``

``Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up 'whats that?` It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said `this is a man', 'this is a house', etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks `whats this then?'

'' A curious analogy could be based on the fact that even the hugest telescope has to have an eyepiece than the human eye.''

''The power of language has to make everything look the same, which is most glaringly evident in the dictionary and which makes the personification of time possible: something no less remarkable than would have been making divinities of the logical constants.``

``Philosophers who say 'after death a timeless state will begin', or: 'at death a timeless state begins', and do not notice that they have used the words 'after', and 'it'and 'begins' in a in a temporal sense and that temporality is embedded in their grammar.``

''The queer resemblance between a philosphical investigation and (perhaps especially in mathematics) and an aesthetic one. (E.g., what is bad about this garment, how should it be, etc.).

''Unshakeable faith(E.g., in a promise). is it any less certain than being convinced of a mathematical truth? -But does that make the language games any more alike?''

``Nothing is more important for teaching us to understand the concepts we have than to construct fictitious ones.``

``It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.``

``Ambition is the death of thought.``