Sarwar Abdullah received his B.A. in philosophy from Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, NS) in 2009 and M.A.in Philosophy from Dalhousie University (Halifax) in 2013 where he wrote his thesis on the early Wittgenstein—“TRACTATUS: LOGIC AND THE CHALLENGE OF ETHIC” He also earned an M.A. in Theology and Religious Studies from Saint Mary’s university, 2014 where he wrote his thesis on Simone Weil—“‘Negative Faith: The Moment of God’s Absence’: Simone Weil on Affliction”. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Humanities at York University (Toronto, Ontario). Address: Toronto/ON (Canada)
The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the wor... more The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.
The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the wor... more The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.
This thesis focuses on Simone Weil’s philosophical, ethical, and religious perspectives on afflic... more This thesis focuses on Simone Weil’s philosophical, ethical, and religious perspectives on affliction by clarifying the essential difference between what is necessary and what is good. According to Weil, reality is governed by blind physical and moral necessities. She claims that we experience necessity as constraint and constraint as suffering. But affliction, she claims, is something essentially different; it is not reducible to mere suffering. I will argue that Weil’s conception of affliction can be best understood as a momentarily ‘numinous experience’ of God’s absence or the feeling of the absolute good. Numinous experience, according to Rudolf Otto, is a kind of experience which contains a quite specific moment and which remains ineffable. What is ineffable can only be felt. That is, Weil’s investigation of affliction concentrates on the feeling response to the absence or silence of God, the feeling which remains where language fails.
The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the wor... more The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.
The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the wor... more The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.
This thesis focuses on Simone Weil’s philosophical, ethical, and religious perspectives on afflic... more This thesis focuses on Simone Weil’s philosophical, ethical, and religious perspectives on affliction by clarifying the essential difference between what is necessary and what is good. According to Weil, reality is governed by blind physical and moral necessities. She claims that we experience necessity as constraint and constraint as suffering. But affliction, she claims, is something essentially different; it is not reducible to mere suffering. I will argue that Weil’s conception of affliction can be best understood as a momentarily ‘numinous experience’ of God’s absence or the feeling of the absolute good. Numinous experience, according to Rudolf Otto, is a kind of experience which contains a quite specific moment and which remains ineffable. What is ineffable can only be felt. That is, Weil’s investigation of affliction concentrates on the feeling response to the absence or silence of God, the feeling which remains where language fails.
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