WITTGENSTEIN'S LOFOTEN
In his Vermischte Bemerkungen Wittgenstein said the
following: “The proper greeting among philosophers should be: Give yourself
time!” While reclining today on a rock in the Lofoten Islands, almost as in
David's painting of Madame Recamier, I thought of the implication of
Wittgenstein’s statement. I also tried to get a real feel for it. I did. For it
struck me that on the level of enunciation this is obviously a total call for
silence. The fact that it is significant for philosophers to give themselves
time is equal to saying that what philosophers should do is to keep quiet. As
time is an illusion it will never arrive. Hence whatever the philosopher might
have to say will never find its proper time. So keep quiet. Write nothing. Say
nothing.
On the emotional level Wittgenstein was an optimist. He
really thought that he would find another philosopher of his caliber with whom
he could engage in that exchange: give yourself time. Listen to that, ‘give
yourself time.’ Say it again, ‘give yourself time.’ Well, for all the longing
excitement in this statement, and for all my sensing Wittgenstein’s breathing
on me as he wants to let me know that he really wanted to say these words and
not just put them on paper, the fact is that he never did. He couldn’t find
another to say them to. I’m tempted to say that this is his tragedy, but I’m
afraid that this is rather the other philosophers’ tragedy. They’ve all gone
into the race for words, and not to mention the race for getting indexed in
this or that academic 4.3 rated solid journal, and finally, not to mention all
that referencing. Footnotes after footnotes after footnotes, all the names must
be referenced, for we are a community, and if I don’t reference your name, you
will not reference mine, and lo and behold, at the end of the day we won’t get
points enough to fulfill the annual quota for what is called original and stolid
research.
So, Wittgenstein was one of a kind, and he understood what
the illusion of separation is all about; the fear of being separated from your
peers, or the loved ones, or your enemies. He spent time in Norway for lengthy months, eating beans and collecting stones. You know, the round
things with funny structures in them. He was following the tradition of philosophers
before the days of ‘make an impact’ in the world. In the old days philosophers
used to write treatises on nature. Not a single reference to other brains. They
would walk about in a nice peripatetic fashion, contemplate what they saw and
scribble their thoughts on something that was not all glossy paper with a nice
picture on the cover. No bullets either filling the content. The formalists of
Empedocles’ times had a different notion of what keeping it simple is. Oh, the
illusion of clarity. Wittgenstein also understood that.
Nowadays not even the
phenomenologists are allowed to just sit and stare, you know, to give yourself
time. Though their discourse tends to be less ‘clear’ than the ones into
counting fallacies. The phenomenologists are still getting away with some circularity,
perhaps even write about roundness, stones, space, and the like. But they are
not free from references. Nope. Namedropping has become an establishment. Now
we have institutions that hire professional work to keep the gates not only free
of sleepwalkers and those who dive their noses into unconsecrated wells, but
also to instruct on what goes and what doesn’t.
I like Iamblichus, and his adamant
pointing out that Plato was not against diviners, creative thinkers, and the
likes of Wittgenstein. No. Plato considered the bachoi to be the true philosopher, namely the one who was the
torch-bearer and the seer. The bachoi,
the philosopher/diviner would drink from the “lake of memory” (See the poems of
Parmenides) and then hell would break loose. No logic here. Only passion. The
only antidote to conformism.
So, while reclining on my stone today, with Wittgenstein urging me on to speak on his behalf, I thought of how lucky we both are. To be free. To be free even of expecting that out here, of all places, we might run into another whom we could greet with the words: give yourself time. For time, as Wittgenstein and I know, doesn’t exist. Only stones.
So, while reclining on my stone today, with Wittgenstein urging me on to speak on his behalf, I thought of how lucky we both are. To be free. To be free even of expecting that out here, of all places, we might run into another whom we could greet with the words: give yourself time. For time, as Wittgenstein and I know, doesn’t exist. Only stones.
Comments
Lovely post about stones. And thanks for the reference to Caetano Veloso. He's one of my favorite intellectual singers.
I disagree with you, though, that Wittgenstein would advocate "just observe" -- except, perhaps, in special instances (like basking on the rocks in Norway). Though he removed himself from the fray for periods of time, he certainly wasn't passive towards the events of his times. More importantly, as a philosopher, the development of good observational skills was meant to provide the material for replacing the traditional philosophical "must be" with bits of what actually is. If the job of philosophy is to describe, then one must first observe.
Anyway, I liked the spirit with which you spoke for LW. Thanks.