By bridging Wittgenstein and Gandhi’s ideas, this essay reveals new perspectives on ethics, truth, and religion, offering insights into their relevance for politics and social change.
Author
John Robert Clammer, Professor, Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, 131001, India
Summary
Wittgenstein and Gandhi never met, and while the former knew of the latter, it is unlikely that Gandhi knew anything about the philosopher. Their thought is rarely, if ever, brought into dialogue. This essay is an attempt to do just that, along a number of dimensions: Wittgenstein’s relation to Eastern thought, and in particular Indian philosophy and Buddhism, the contrasting approaches to the nature of religion found in the two thinkers, the significant place that truth plays in their writings, and the key role that ethics plays for both Gandhi and Wittgenstein. While Gandhi, unlike Wittgenstein, was deeply involved in the politics of his time, the essay argues that both must be understood in the context of the events that framed their lives, and in their mutual critique of Western ‘civilization’. While Gandhi is rarely considered to be a philosopher in the technical sense, the essay shows how, when brought into dialogue with Wittgenstein, his work and writings can be brought into fruitful dialogue with more traditional philosophical questions.
In this respect, an interesting “family resemblance” can be seen between the two seminal thinkers, not least that while Wittgenstein is often seen as one of the most technical of philosophers, especially in his early work, when brought into dialogue with Gandhi he can also be read as a profound ethical and religious writer whose work verges on mysticism in some respects. As the question of truth lies at the basis of both their systems of thought, considering both Wittgenstein and Gandhi together may prove to be an interesting experiment with political implications for practice of, in the context of this book, Satyagraha itself.
Published in: Rethinking Satyagraha: Truth, Travel and Translation
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