Socratic Irony

In his preface to the Tractatus Wittgenstein states that the question of nonsense has to do with drawing the limits of language. Nonsensical expressions go beyond the limits of meaningful language and reside “on the other side” of what can be said. Yet, at the end of the book he declares that his own propositions are, strictly speaking, nonsensical. The present paper aims at analyzing early Wittgenstein’s self-refuting strategy as a mode of transcending the limits of language, comparing his concept of “nonsense” (Unsinn) with Kierkegaard’s view of indirect communication and Socratic irony.

Irony's fecundity within the dialectics of the stages of existence The following paper is dedicated to Kierkegaard`s life and work, in the light of the stages of existence that he conceived. Since he is one of the philosophers whose writings are bound together with his personal life, I intend to study him as a whole, both as an ironist and as an ironologist. The main goal of this text is to analyze the function of the concept of irony that helped Kierkegaard to overcome his personal problems, especially his broken engagement to Regine Olsen. If, in his dissertation on irony, the Danish philosopher reffers permanently to Socrates, in the following books he is constantly reffering to Regine. Finally, I argue that the entire game of pseudonyms that he orchestrated was part of his plan to make the leap of faith. Even though his love for Regine was, in a way, a disaster, in other sense of understanding was a good thing, because it forced him to reach out and touch faith, giving us a way of life.