[sixminuteabs]

The world is everything that is the case. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/t5101en.html

People are oft confused by the logic of our language. But there is nothing transcendental to it. There is no thing-in-itself. From these coordinates, it is quite easy to see that both tautologies and contradictions are a part of logic and not something otherwise. It used to be said that God could not create anything which contradicts the laws of logic, but, in fact, we could not say of something un-logical.

A tautology is grasped in the classical sense by "It is what it is". But the description of of such a statement lines up with other, less obviously tautological statements. Metaphysics comes to mind. In fact, the very nature of metaphysics seems to be in that it tries to say what it is. Ethics or religion is likewise in kind.

It is not that we must avoid tautologies, but we must be aware of them.

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So, I have finally found the ultimate philosopher. Kant, Plato, and Buddha ain't got shit on the sparse yet thorough Wittgenstein. His Lecture on Ethics, although the first thing he did after writing the Tractatus makes for the best introduction that could be given.

Lecture on Ethics
http://www.geocities.jp/mickindex/wittg ... et_en.html

Full text of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html

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Why is any of this important to you? Well... whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

[Suska]

This should be in the Agora.

you do realize "oft" is archaic and your grammar is weird..? and coming from me it must be really bad.

I agree with the sentiment, but to arrive at a tautology is one of the first steps of discourse, to agree on definition, and this is a necessary step no matter what you want to talk about. leaving it out is one way to cause disharmony.

The Buddha went way beyond ethics btw and without Plato Wittgenstein wouldn't even have the language in which to talk about ethics. I don't really care about Kant but I also don't really care about Wittgenstein. If you're trying to interest us why don't you share some of your favorite quotes and concepts?

[sixminuteabs]

I agree, The agora. Sorta missed it and went here first. But then, ethics and religion are practically the same thing.

"If a lion could talk, we could not understand him. "

"The limits of my language means the limits of my world."

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present."

"It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed "Wisdom." And then I know exactly what is going to follow: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.""

"Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself."

"Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental."

"For a truly religious man nothing is tragic."