绝对价值与生活的意义——《逻辑哲学论》伦理学维度的展开

Absolute Value and the Meaning of Life:An Ethical Explanation About Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

维特根斯坦一方面把《逻辑哲学论》描述为一本伦理学的著作,另一方面又在此书中断言,不可能存在伦理学的命题。破解这一哲学谜题的钥匙隐藏在他对伦理学的定义之中,维特根斯坦认为,伦理学的目标是探寻生活的绝对价值,即我们在逻辑上不得不接受的价值。绝对价值具有逻辑上的排他性,构成人类生活意义的终极来源。之所以不可能存在伦理学的命题,是因为对于任何能够被思维到的价值,我们总是可以设想到选择其他价值的可能性,在逻辑上找不到接受这种价值的必然性,因而一切通过思维和语言得到表达的价值先天地不属于绝对价值。人类生活的终极意义超越了逻辑思维的认知范围。《逻辑哲学论》的伦理学维度体现在,它详细地解释了这种“先天性不可能”的成因。

On the one hand,Wittgenstein describes Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as a work of ethics;on the other hand,he asserts in this book that there could not be ethical propositions.The key to this philosophical puzzle lies in his definition of ethics.Wittgenstein believes that the goal of ethics is to explore absolute value of life which logically we have to accept.Absolute value is logically exclusive and constitutes the ultimate source of the meaning of human life.The reason for the impossibility of ethical propositions is that,for any value that can be thought,we can always assume the possibility of choosing other values and there is no logical necessity to accept such values,therefore,all the values expressed through thinking and language are congenitally not absolute values.The ethical dimension of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus lies in its detailed explanation of the causes of this“inborn impossibility”.