Meaning in Life: A Wittgensteinian Approach by Seyed Reza Hosseini Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree DOCTOR LITTERARUM ET PHILOSOPHIAE in Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg Supervisor: Professor Thaddeus Metz Co-supervisor: Professor Johan Snyman May 2013 Acknowledgements An idea expands like a seed in the soil. So many things have to happen so it grows. There are people involved here; places too, like the streets of Tehran. That’s what an acknowledgement is about. I am grateful to my supervisors, Professor Metz and Professor Snyman, whose comments and suggestions have been crucial in the development of my thoughts in this work. But, of course, there are more important things that you taught me, to which I express my deepest gratitude. I am grateful to the Philosophy Department at the University of Johannesburg for providing generous financial support for me to present a paper at the 35th International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria and attending the 19th conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion in Utrecht, Netherland. On both occasions, I had the opportunity to share my ideas and seek feedback and comments. Some of those comments made some impacts on my writing. I am especially grateful to Professor Hans Sluga for his comments on my paper, which was a shorter version of Chapter Four. I am also thankful to my friend, Oisín Eoin Keohane for proofreading chapters Five and Six and giving some precious comments on them. Finally, I want to thank my family, my wife, Lebo. You are home! i Previously Published Work The following paper is taken from Chapter Four: Hosseini, R. (2012). In Defense of the Ordinary: A Wittgenstein Approach Toward the Theories of Great Meaning. In M. G. Weiss & H. Greif (Eds.), "Ethics, Society, Politics", Papers of the 35th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Volume XX (pp. 120-123). Kirchberg am Wechsel: Ontos Verlag. Statement of Length This thesis contains 93 724 words, in compliance with the guideline of about 75 000 words recommended by the Faculty of Humanities. ii Declaration I, Seyed Reza Hosseini, declare that this thesis has not in part or in whole been submitted at any other university or other academic institutions and that the content of the thesis is my own work, except those parts that are acknowledged to have been taken from other sources. Signature iii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 The Research Question ............................................................................................................................. 1 An Overview of the Literature .................................................................................................................. 3 Clarification of the Project and Method .................................................................................................... 7 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................................................. 12 1. Book of Facts, Book of Values .............................................................................................. 19 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 19 The Tractatus as a Treatise on the Meaning of Life ............................................................................... 21 The Tractarian Reading of Realism/Idealism Debate ............................................................................. 29 A Tractarian Account of the Meaning of Life ........................................................................................ 33 Ethics as ‘Enquiry into the Meaning of Life’ ......................................................................................... 39 2. A Tractarian Approach to the Literature on Life’s Meaning ........................................... 53 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 53 Supernaturalism ...................................................................................................................................... 54 Naturalism ............................................................................................................................................... 69 Unlivability of the Tractarian Philosophy of Life ................................................................................... 80 3. On Aspect-Seeing and Meaning in Life ............................................................................... 91 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 91 Aspect-Seeing and Aspect-Blindness ..................................................................................................... 93 Attitude/Opinion Dichotomy .................................................................................................................. 98 Aspect-Seeing and the Meaning of Life ............................................................................................... 100 On Religion as a Way of Seeing the World .......................................................................................... 106 Objections and Clarifications ................................................................................................................ 115 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 118 4. In Defense of the Ordinary: Wittgenstein, Marquard, and Theories of Great Meaning120 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 120 Marquard on Inflated Conceptions of Meaning .................................................................................... 123 Essentials of the Dietetics of Expectation of Meaning ......................................................................... 128 iv Great Meaning versus the Ordinary Meaning ....................................................................................... 137 Levy on ‘Downshifting and Meaning in Life’ ...................................................................................... 145 Particularity and Theories of Great Meaning ........................................................................................ 153 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 161 5. On Detachment or Why the Shopkeeper Does Not Investigate His Apples ................... 164 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 164 Doubt in the Stream of Life .................................................................................................................. 167 On Certainty and the Meaning of Life .................................................................................................. 177 Nagel, Irony and Its Limits ................................................................................................................... 184 Indifference, Fear, and Failure: Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, and Cavell on Philosophical Skepticism 199 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 210 6. The Human Voice: Confession as the Grammar of the Question of Life’s Meaning .... 213 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 213 The Grammar of the Question .............................................................................................................. 216 Objections and Clarifications ................................................................................................................ 238 A Case Study: Mr Chandler and the Meaning of Life .......................................................................... 241 Wittgenstein’s Private Conversations ................................................................................................... 246 Into the Abyss of Life ........................................................................................................................... 257 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 258 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 261 The Way Forward ................................................................................................................................. 268 v Introduction The Research Question Though for a large portion of the twentieth century the question of life’s meaning wasn’t a favorite question among analytic philosophers, recent developments, especially within the last 30 years, show that the meaning of life is no longer ‘the black