The Early Wittgenstein’s Mystical Thought And The Internal Unity Of The Tractatus

In order to publish the Tractatus, Wittgenstein told the publisher Ludwig Von Ficker in a letter that the Tractatus consists of two parts. The one part is written while the other part is not. However, the later concerning about what cannot be spoke is the most significant, which has ethical value. How should we understand the relationship between what can be said and what cannot be said? For me, Wittgenstein’s mystical thought is the pivot to concatenate the two parts. The mystical thought is a key for understanding the Tractatus, since the last proposition of this book which implies the mystical thought by saying that what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence is both the end of what have been written and the beginning of what have not been written. It is worth noting that Wittgenstein’s mystical thought is not the traditional mysticism, because he objects any pattern of doctrine or theory. What does the mystical thought refer to?Wittgenstein mentions the mystical thought at6.44,6.45, and6.522, which are at the end of Tractatus. We could learn that the mystical though includes following characteristics:(1) that the world exists is mystical;(2) the mystical feeling is to view the world sub specie aeterni as a limited whole;(3) what is mystical cannot be put into words, but they make themselves manifest. Those characteristics have profound connotations in the Tractatus in the following aspects. How the world is contrasts with that the world exists. The former refers to facts in the world. Since we could imagine those facts either existence or not existence, they belong to occasional realm and do not have ethical value. The latter refers to that the world exists. Since we could not imagine that the world does not exist, it belongs to necessary realm and has ethical value. The general view contrasts with the eternal view. The former means to see the world in time and space, or in the logical space. The world seen under this view is the world of facts, and pertains to natural science field. The latter means to see the world out time and space, or out the logical space. The world seen under this view is the world of value, and pertains to aesthetical or ethical field. The parts of the world contrasts with the whole of the world. The former are facts happening in the world, and is insignificant as parts. The latter is the limit of the world, and is significant as a whole. As it were, the mystical thought is an important content of which Wittgenstein intends to express. It pertains to the field of ethical value and is the ultimate aim of the Tractatus. Meanwhile, the mystical thought has closely connection with what can be spoken about, because there is no impassable gulf between them. This work will study the Tractatus from perspective of the mystical thought, intending to show that the mystical thought is a hidden vein which is embedded in the various themes of the Tractatus. The mystical thought makes the ontology, the linguistics, the logic and the ethical composing an internal unity. According to the mystical thought being as a clue, the internal unity of the Tractatus is expressed in the following two points.Firstly, the Tractatus’end echoes the beginning in terms of mystical thought, which is both the precondition of what can be talked about and the conclusion of the critique of language. The first proposition of the Tractatus is that the world is all that is the case in which the term "all" mean a limited whole and the term "is" mean that the world exists rather than how the world is. Those two points in the first proposition response the main content of the mystical thought. In this sense, the mystical thought which appears in the beginning of the book is the condition of what will be said in the following sections. The last proposition of the Tractatus is that what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence which concerns about the mystical as the conclusion of the critique of language. The task of the critique of language is to draw a limit to the expression of thoughts, or draw a limit to what can be said and a limit to what cannot be said. Wittgenstein argues that by presenting clearly what can be said, it will signify what cannot be said, which concerns the ethical value as the ultimate aim of the book. Therefore, the mystical thought located in the beginning of the Tractatus is the condition for the ontology, the critique of the language and the logic, and the mystical thought located in the end of the Tractatus is the destination of value for the activity of philosophy. The mystical though make the book to be a complete structural system.Secondly, through a deeply studying the inner content of the Tractatus, we find that Wittgenstein’s mystical thought penetrate the whole book. This feature is reflected in the two main treads:one is the limit of the world; the other is that the world exists. For Wittgenstein, the limit of the world reflects the extreme situation of the form of the world, which means the limit of the language and the limit of the logic. The limit of the logic is the essence of the form of the world, and the boundary defined by the general form of propositions, which sets up the logical space of the world. Wittgenstein maintains that the limit of the world is obtained through the analysis of the limit of language, limit of logic and the metaphysical subject. That the world exists reflects the extreme situation of the content of the world, which expresses itself in that the language exists and the logic exists. That the world exists is the condition of the logic, and free from any possible restriction of the logic. The subject’s experience to that the world exists cannot be expressed by language. This experience is to feel the world as my world and as a miracle. We could find in the Tractatus that that the world exists is obtained through the elucidation of that the langue exists, that the logic exists and that the subject exists. So to speak, the two threads which are the limit of the world and that the world exists, being as the main content of the mystical thought, display themselves through the routine of the linguistics, the logic and the subject. Those six aspects of the three routines mentioned above reflect commonly the mystical thought in the Tractatus, which make up the whole book to be an internal unity.Wittgenstein said that the Tractatus is an ethical work which signifies what cannot be said by presenting clearly what can be said. It shows that the mystical thought of this book is not an independent part, but rather it has significant connection with other parts. By examining the relations between the mystical thought and the ontology, critique of language and the analysis of the logic to clarify the internal unity of this book, we will uncover the mystical veil of the Tractatus.