{"id":5436,"date":"2015-02-06T12:32:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T12:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5436"},"modified":"2015-02-03T12:33:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T12:33:03","slug":"the-tyranny-of-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5436","title":{"rendered":"The tyranny of theory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tolstoy\"<\/a>

Tolstoy<\/p><\/div>\n

In a passage replete with quotable sentences from the linked article: “Levin at last realizes that if one lives rightly moment to moment, one can sense life\u2019s meaningfulness, but one will still not be able to express it.” From a fantastic essay in The New Criterion<\/em><\/a> about how science has narrowed and blinded us to its own limits, on the path\u00a0toward wisdom. One can substitute the word “literature” with the word “art” at the end of the second paragraph and do no harm to the meaning of the paragraph:<\/p>\n

Tolstoy in particular shaped Wittgenstein\u2019s thought. As a soldier in the Austrian army, Wittgenstein carried copies of Tolstoy\u2019s stories and Gospel in Brief<\/i> everywhere. His friends jokingly referred to him as \u201cthe man with the Gospels.\u201d The end of the Tractatus<\/i> makes sense the moment one recognizes it as a loose paraphrase of Levin\u2019s meditations in Part VIII of Anna Karenina<\/i>.<\/p>\n

For Wittgenstein, logic and science are indeed powerless to address questions of life\u2019s meaning. \u201cWe feel that even if all possible<\/i> scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all,\u201d Wittgenstein explains. But that does not mean these problems do not matter. It means that they must be addressed otherwise\u2014for example, by literature.<\/p>\n

Like Levin, Wittgenstein reasons that \u201cthe sense of life\u201d cannot be a fact in t<\/i>he world, but must lie outside it. It cannot belong to the chain of cause and effect, or anything connected with natural laws, because it must illumine life as a whole. Or as Levin comes to understand: \u201cIf goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness lies outside the chain of cause and effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levin at last realizes that if one lives rightly moment to moment, one can sense life\u2019s meaningfulness, but one will still not be able to express it. What changes for him is not some fact in the world, but the world itself, which, as Wittgenstein paraphrases the point, \u201cmust wax and wane as a whole.\u201d Ultimate questions are not answered, but they vanish in the face of meaningfulness and goodness directly experienced. Wittgenstein at his most Tolstoyan explains: \u201cThe solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of this problem. (Is not this the reason why men to whom after long doubting the sense of life became clear, could not then say wherein this sense consisted?).\u201d Russell notwithstanding, the genuinely inexpressible is indeed real. We come to know it not by logical deduction but because \u201cit\u00a0makes itself manifest<\/i>. That is the mystical.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Levin comes to this realization, he understands that meaningfulness has always been there right before his eyes, hidden in plain view. Cloaked in its ordinariness, it is a daily miracle. \u201cAnd I watched for [material] miracles, complained that I did not see a miracle that would convince me,\u201d Levin thinks. \u201cAnd here is the miracle, the sole miracle possible, continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never noticed it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a passage replete with quotable sentences from the linked article: “Levin at last realizes that if one lives rightly moment to moment, one can sense life\u2019s meaningfulness, but one will still not be able to express it.” From a fantastic essay in The New Criterion about how science has narrowed and blinded us to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe tyranny of theory - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5436\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The tyranny of theory - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a passage replete with quotable sentences from the linked article: “Levin at last realizes that if one lives rightly moment to moment, one can sense life\u2019s meaningfulness, but one will still not be able to express it.” From a fantastic essay in The New Criterion about how science has narrowed and blinded us to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5436\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-06T12:32:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Leo-Tolstoy-9508518-2-402-2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"The tyranny of theory\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-06T12:32:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436\"},\"wordCount\":527,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/Leo-Tolstoy-9508518-2-402-2.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5436\",\"name\":\"The tyranny of theory - 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