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Four CIVILIZATION and ITS SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS

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Four CIVILIZATION and ITS SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS Four CIVILIZATION AND ITS SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS 1. Civilization as the “Ashes” of Culture Even the longest journeys come to an end. From Ludwig Wittgenstein’s cul- tural standpoint, the epic that was once Western high and great culture consti- tuted a spiritual tradition, which, through the efforts made in various arts and ways of life over many years expressed the human spirit in a grand and lofty manner. By its progression through all sorts of new and profound spiritual adventures, while observing a cherished tradition, it eventually acquired the shape of a great cultural epic. It thus enabled different people at different times and places to pool their cultural efforts and make use of their tasteful and creative powers in a common spiritual bond. But all that is now over. From his cultural standpoint, the spiritual epos that was once Western high and great culture no longer exists. Western civilization has arisen in its stead. As may now be seen, Wittgenstein’s gloomy conclusion about “the dis- appearance of a culture” and the emergence of “civilization” is pronounced against the background of his idealized perspective on what he calls “the high and great culture” of the West. It is important to note that the concept of civi- lization he uses as a contrast to the high and great culture of the West is not that of a low or popular culture. In Wittgenstein’s cultural standpoint, civili- zation is a spiritual stage of disintegration and mellowing that has overtaken the high and great culture of the West. It does not apply to what is referred to as “low culture.” While similar in his rejection of certain trends in modern arts to cultural critics who condemned them as “decadent,” his remarks are also made within a conceptual context of discussion that he seeks to clarify. Recalling the effort that once went into developing cultured taste and observance of tradition in the West, Wittgenstein experiences modern West- ern civilization as an age devoid of true high culture and he doubts that any new high and great culture will arise out of it. With some feeble hope, he re- flects, “Perhaps one day a culture will arise out of this civilization. Then there will be a real history of the discoveries of the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries, which will be of profound interest.”1 But he was not very optimistic regarding such an outcome. On the whole, he felt, “The earlier culture will become a heap of rubble & finally a heap of ashes.” Only “spirits will hover over the ashes.”2 Wittgenstein’s lack of sympathy for this civilization arises in connection with what he perceives as its spiritual decline in comparison to what was once the high and great culture of the West. It is in terms of its spiritual manifesta- tions that he sees the emergence of modern Western civilization as coming at 126 WITTGENSTEIN ON THE HUMAN SPIRIT the expense of the former high and great culture of the West. The most prom- inent manifestation of the fall of culture and the rise of civilization in the West seems to him to be the disappearance of a concentrated shared effort to observe a way of life and to contribute to a tradition that aims at and enables human beings to express and experience something lofty and eternal through their culture. It is instructive to note some of the ways in which he clarifies the spirit of this civilization. 2. The Spirit of Science and Technology From Wittgenstein’s cultural standpoint, the goals that modern civilization places before human beings, through, for example, the pursuit of knowledge by the sciences, do not provide a cultural outlet for experiencing and express- ing something spiritually lofty and eternal. Modern civilization, with its pur- suit of technology and science, is based on cherishing and valuing intellect and the achievements of intellect. Accordingly, it aims to reshape, control, and explain nature by means of science. He views the past high and great culture of the West, on the other hand, as an enterprise based on a spiritual attitude toward life that is untainted by science and the outlook on life it pro- vides. It is the ground for religion, crafts, and art, which still allows nature to be experienced in an inspired and lofty way as something miraculous. To clarify this idea, Wittgenstein focuses on our ability to experience natural events as something marvelous, in contrast to how they are approached and explained through scientific discourse: The miracles of nature, We might say: art discloses the miracles of nature to us. It is based on the concept of the miracles of nature. (The blossom, just opening out. What is marvelous about it?) We say: “Look, how it’s opening out!”3 Thus, the past arts in the West were based on a spiritual attitude toward life that enables us to perceive natural events as something miraculous and to be awed by what transpires in nature. Science, on the other hand, dictates an intellectual, theoretical, often mechanical point of view that makes us reach for rational explanations. Consequently, this inspired perspective is complete- ly lost. Wittgenstein notes, “In order to marvel human beings and perhaps peoples have to wake up. Science is a way of sending them off to sleep again.”4 Given the difference in spiritual attitudes that underlie science and our ability to experience the miracles of nature, he remarks, “It is all one to me whether the typical western scientist understands or appreciates my work since in any case he does not understand the spirit in which I write.”5 It is thus with deep misgivings that Wittgenstein compares the progress at which modern technology and science aim with the inspired attitude of .
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