Art, Craftsmanship and Philosophical Method According to Wittgenstein

Although Wittgenstein"s oeuvre is characterized by a profound sense of aesthetic value, it is not in the first instance an effort to philosophize artistically. Rather, Wittgenstein concern for craftsmanship is rooted in his search for mechanical techniques for creating novel re-presentations of troubling issues such as the role of axioms in formal logic, such as the truth table, which would definitively dissolve our temptation to pose philosophical problems. The rhetorical form of ceaseless questioning typical of his later philosophy is rooted in an open-ended conception of human reasoning which rules out such a definitive move but, nevertheless, demands analogous re-presentations in aid if providing us with synoptic views of what tempts us into conceptual conundrums. The beauty in Wittgenstein"s thought, illustrated in the Palais Stonborough, is the product of a craftsman"s work, not the work of an artist.