Analytical Philosophy as a Project of Emancipation from Suffering

Abstract

This paper aims at a certain inter-traditional comparison of Wittgenstein’s and
Schopenhauer’s work, namely in identifying the ”Indian“ aspect of the latter’s
philosophy: its self-interpretation as a form of emancipation from suffering by means
of breaking through the veil of illusion to the knowledge of ‘will’. Tractarian
Wittgenstein tries to liquidate all the so-called philosophical problems through
analysis of language, and then to throw overboard his own philosophy, as a result of
which all problems, both philosophical ones and problems of life, vanish. The late
Wittgenstein’s project has a structure similar to Schopenhauer’s: he wants to break
through language’s captivity of reason by means of a description. Attaining the
knowledge of the functioning of language and establishing philosophical clarity, he
manages to heal philosophical discomfort, which may coincide with the unease one
feels throughout one’s entire life. It is then possible to stop the philosophical
activity, which was just a therapeutic reaction to disease.