The World Seen Sub Specie Aeternitatis: Wittgenstein’s Platonism

Abstract

The expression adopted as the title of this chapter refers to what is probably the most profound spiritual experience that some great philosophers of the Western tradition had in their lives. To trace its history would mean taking into consideration quite a number of great works of the human spirit, but the search will always end up in the work of Plato, the creator of what is essential in the set of ideas and feelings associated with that expression. It is a powerful and strange set of ethical, aesthetical and religious elements that was destined to exert a very profound influence not only on ancient and medieval philosophy, but also on the philosophy of modern times. The meaning that Wittgenstein attributed to the experience of the world sub specie aeternitatis can only be understood within the context of the Platonic tradition to which that experience essentially belongs. It is my aim, therefore, to examine his remarks on this matter in the light of the fertile words of Plato, to whom Wittgestein is connected by many links, especially by his ethics, his aesthetics, and by some essential features of his religious temperament.¹