Wittgenstein

"I am not a religious man; but I cannot help seeing every problem from a religious point of view", such were Wittgenstein's words to his friend Drury. This essay is the last work by the philosopher Norman Malcolm, before his death in the summer of 1990. Malcolm first draws together a collection of remarks made by Wittgenstein at various stages of his life and in many different contexts, which are expressive of his attitude to religion. He discusses both some of the ways in which Wittgenstein was drawn to religious ways of thinking and also speculates concerning the barriers which stayed him from full religious commitment. Malcolm connects these barriers with Wittgenstein's commitment to philopsophy. He discusses important features of Wittgenstein's philosophical work and the nature of and reasons for the changes which took place in his thinking between "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" and "Philosophical Investigations".