The Unutterable as a Mode of Utterance: Wittgenstein’s Two Remarks on “Count Eberhard’s Hawthorn” by Ludwig Uhland
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Christoph König
Abstract
Uhland’s poem has found fame as a litmus test in philosophical debates about Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Like many works of art, the poem is dynamically produced in its effort to resolve a fundamental conflict. The poem’s conflict arises from the difficulty to connect the count’s life and his daydream. In the end, the poem as a whole serves to embody a critique of the capacity of a daydream to recover memories faithfully. Wittgenstein makes two remarks in a 1917 letter to Paul Engelmann that pertain to the poem. They are to be read in keeping with a resolute reading (James Conant, Cora Diamond) of the Tractatus; Wittgenstein’s first remark imitates the very movement of thought we find in the poem – and in doing so Wittgenstein makes good on his claim to talk about the poem: “the unutterable is, – unutterably – contained in what is uttered.” His second remark has, thus far, played no role in literature – Wittgenstein speaks of Engelmann’s dreams, yet he does not explicitly formulate the poem’s bearing on them. Here, too, he reenacts, in the formulation of his remark, the core conflict of the poem. My interpretation of the poem, finally, distinguishes three interpretive approaches (symbolistic, realistic, critical) in order to capture the understanding of the poem embodied in Wittgenstein's remarks.
Translated from German by Daniel Smyth.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Titelseiten
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Inhalt / Table of Contents
- Articles
- Philosophische Superlative und die Maschine als Symbol
- The Linguistic Idealism Question: Wittgenstein’s Method and his Rejection of Realism
- Bilder, Klänge und Gedanken als Orientierungsfaktoren: Anhaltspunkte bei Nietzsche und Wittgenstein
- The Unutterable as a Mode of Utterance: Wittgenstein’s Two Remarks on “Count Eberhard’s Hawthorn” by Ludwig Uhland
- David Hume & Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Common Approach to Common Sense?
- What he could have said (but did not say) about Gödel’s second theorem: A note on Floyd-Putnam’s Wittgenstein
- The Interpretation of Probability in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- Can Wittgenstein’s Philosophy account for Uncertainty in Introspection?
- Wittgenstein and Dilthey on Scientism and Method
- Logischer Holismus und Wittgensteins „praktische Wende“
- Lectures on Religious Belief and the epistemology of disagreements
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- John G. Gunnell: Conventional Realism and Political Inquiry. Channeling Wittgenstein. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press 2019. 208 pages, $40.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-226-66127-8
- Veena Das: Textures of the Ordinary. Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein. New York, NY: Fordham University Press 2020. 432 pages, $35.00 (Paperback), ISBN 978-0-8232-8769-7
- Ilse Somavilla, Carl Humphries, Bożena Sieradzka-Baziur (Hrsg.): Wittgensteins Denkbewegungen (Tagebücher 1930 – 1932/1936 – 1937) aus interdisziplinärer Sicht. Innsbruck: Studienverlag 2019, 264 Seiten, 34,90 € (kartoniert), ISBN 978-3-7065-5591-3
- Articles
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Titelseiten
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Inhalt / Table of Contents
- Articles
- Philosophische Superlative und die Maschine als Symbol
- The Linguistic Idealism Question: Wittgenstein’s Method and his Rejection of Realism
- Bilder, Klänge und Gedanken als Orientierungsfaktoren: Anhaltspunkte bei Nietzsche und Wittgenstein
- The Unutterable as a Mode of Utterance: Wittgenstein’s Two Remarks on “Count Eberhard’s Hawthorn” by Ludwig Uhland
- David Hume & Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Common Approach to Common Sense?
- What he could have said (but did not say) about Gödel’s second theorem: A note on Floyd-Putnam’s Wittgenstein
- The Interpretation of Probability in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- Can Wittgenstein’s Philosophy account for Uncertainty in Introspection?
- Wittgenstein and Dilthey on Scientism and Method
- Logischer Holismus und Wittgensteins „praktische Wende“
- Lectures on Religious Belief and the epistemology of disagreements
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- John G. Gunnell: Conventional Realism and Political Inquiry. Channeling Wittgenstein. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press 2019. 208 pages, $40.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-226-66127-8
- Veena Das: Textures of the Ordinary. Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein. New York, NY: Fordham University Press 2020. 432 pages, $35.00 (Paperback), ISBN 978-0-8232-8769-7
- Ilse Somavilla, Carl Humphries, Bożena Sieradzka-Baziur (Hrsg.): Wittgensteins Denkbewegungen (Tagebücher 1930 – 1932/1936 – 1937) aus interdisziplinärer Sicht. Innsbruck: Studienverlag 2019, 264 Seiten, 34,90 € (kartoniert), ISBN 978-3-7065-5591-3
- Articles
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
- Bisher erschienene Bände / Previously published Volumes
