ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to show the signifi cance of what cannot be put into words in light of a mystical interpretation of the Tractatus. Wittgenstein’s Preface to the Tractatus contains the following three main points about the book: fi rst, it deals with the problems of philosophy; second, its aim is to draw limits to the expressions of thought; third, it offers the fi nal solution to the problems of philosophy. At 6.53 he states that if one has understood the book one is left with only the propositions of what can be said (i.e. natural science), but that this has nothing to do with philosophy. On one hand philosophy is a method of setting limits to what can be thought, as we fi nd in the 4.11s. Having set those limits, what remains? As we have examined in the chapters leading to this point, the aim of the book is not to lead us to a point where we have provided the limits on what can be said as an endorsement of the propositions of science. At 6.54 Wittgenstein states that all philosophical propositions, including those found in the Tractatus, are nonsense. However, we are not to see the propositions in the Tractatus as mere nonsense. Rather, they are to be seen as steps in a ladder. Used in this way, and not as doctrine, they lead one to a point beyond them. From this point one will see the world aright (ibid.). However, if the Tractatus leads us to a place where we are excluded from the use of language, how are we to make sense of what cannot be put into words?
