Engaging with the Problems of Life Exploring the Notion of ‘Deep’ in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Thoughts

Abstract

Can philosophy provide answers to the question of life? Ludwig Wittgenstein is convinced that academic philosophy is not the answer to the questions of life and its problems. At least that is the impression one gets from reading works by him and on him. For holding such a view against academic or traditional philosophy, he was labelled by some as “debunker” of philosophy.1 A similar view on Wittgenstein was expressed by Richard Rorty. After characterizing various views on the future of philosophy, he raised this question with Wittgenstein’s pessimist view at the back of his mind, “Does that mean philosophy will have come to an end – that philosophers will have worked hard themselves out of a job?”2 What is Wittgenstein’s idea of philosophy anyway? Is Wittgenstein’s engagement with life’s problems outside the purview of philosophy? What did he say about life and its problems? A significant portion of this paper is directed, explicitly or tacitly, towards these questions.