This presentation belongs to a talk I have given at the conference "Wittgensteinian Approaches to Moral Philosophy" at the University of Leuven, Belgium, 17.-19.9.2015

1. On Ethics And Mythology
A Wittgensteinian Point ofView
Thomas Wachtendorf
wachtendorf@akademiephilosophie.de
Research center Erkenntnis, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Wittgensteinian Approaches to Moral Philosophy (Second Edition)
University of Leuven, Belgium

2. Thomas Wachtendorf
1. The initial question
2. Classification of sentences
3. World-Picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-As
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology

3. Thomas Wachtendorf
The crucial question:
Are ethical sentences empirical or merely
conventional?
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology

4. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
„That I am a man and not a woman can be
verified […].“ (OC §79)

5. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
„Example: ‚Every rod has a length.‘ That means
something like: we call something (or this) ‚the
length of a rod‘—but nothing ‚the length of a
sphere.‘ […] But the picture attaching to the
grammatical proposition could only shew, say,
what is called ‚the length of a rod‘“. (PI, §251)

6. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
C: Regulative sentences
„The propositions presenting what Moore ‘knows’
are all of such a kind that it is difficult to imagine why
anyone should believe the contrary. E.g. the proposition that
Moore has spent his whole life in close proximity to the earth.
– Once more I can speak of myself here instead of speaking of
Moore.What could induce me to believe the opposite? Either
a memory, or having been told. – Everything that I have seen or
heard gives me the conviction that no man has ever been far
from the earth. Nothing in my picture of the world speaks
in favour of the opposite.“(OC §93)

7. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
C: Regulative sentences
D: Empirical, but not yet verified sentences
„As children we learn facts; e.g., that every human
being has a brain, and we take them on trust. I believe
that there is an island,Australia, of such–and–such a
shape, and so on and so on; I believe that I had great–
grandparents, that the people who gave themselves out
as my parents really were my parents, etc.This belief
may never have been expressed; even the thought that
it was so, never thought.“ (OC §159)

8. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
C: Regulative sentences
D: Empirical, but not yet verified sentences
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„The propositions describing this world–picture
might be part of a kind of mythology.And their role is like
that of rules of a game; and the game can be learned purely
practically, without learning any explicit rules.“ (OC §95)
„An entire mythology is stored within our language.“ (RGB
133)
➡Mythological sentences either can’t be doubted and validated (A) or to
doubt them would be completely strange, because they are either not
used as empirical sentences or are self-evident (B, C) or they are
awaiting validation (D).

9. Thomas Wachtendorf
This mythology constitutes a world-picture
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
„That is to say, the questions that we raise and our
doubts depend on the fact that some propositions are exempt
from doubt, are as it were like hinges on which those
turn.“ (OC §341)
„At the foundation of well–founded belief lies belief that is
not founded.“ (OC §253)
„That is to say, it belongs to the logic of our scientific
investigations that certain things are in deed not doubted.“ (OC
§342)
„What I hold fast to is not one proposition but a nest of
propositions.“ (OC §225)
„But I did not get my picture of the world by satisfying myself
of its correctness; nor do I have it because I am satisfied of its
correctness. No: it is the inherited background against which I
distinguish between true and false.“ (OC §94)

10. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
C: Regulative sentences
Where is the place for ethical sentences?
Ethical sentences:
•can be doubted (∉ B)
•are no empirical sentences (∉ A ∧ ∉ D)
D: Empirical, but not yet verified sentences
•are not self-evident (∉ C)

11. Thomas Wachtendorf
A: Empirical sentences
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
B: Grammatical sentences
C: Regulative sentences
Where is the place for ethical sentences?
In a subset of C!
Ethical sentences:
•can be doubted
•are no empirical sentences
D: Empirical, but not yet verified sentences
•are not self-evident
C1: Ethical sentences

12. Thomas Wachtendorf
Ethics as Attitude
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
In this context I define the notion of attitude as
follows:
Attidude ≔The class of all sentences expressing
the dispositions how one reacts to the world.
An attitude – so to speak – frames one’s actions.

13. Thomas Wachtendorf
Ethics as Attitude
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
„It might be imagined that some propositions, of the form of
empirical propositions, were hardened and functioned as channels for
such empirical propositions as were not hardened but fluid; and that
this relation altered with time, in that fluid propositions hardened, and
hard ones became fluid.“ (OC §96)
Accepting certain (ethical) sentences changes
one’s attitude and also one's world-picture:
„The mythology may change back into a state of flux, the river–
bed of thoughts may shift. But I distinguish between the movement of
the waters on the river–bed and the shift of the bed itself; though
there is not a sharp division of the one from the other.“ (OC §97)
„And the bank of that river consists partly of hard rock, subject
to no alteration or only to an imperceptible one, partly of sand, which
now in one place now in another gets washed away, or
deposited.“ (OC §99)

14. Thomas Wachtendorf
Seeing-As
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
The World-picture influences the way we see the
world:
„You only ‚see the duck and
rabbit aspects‘ if you are already
conversant with the shapes of those
two animals.“ (PI II 207)
„The world of the happy man is a different one
from that of the unhappy man.“ (TLP 6.43)
This is why:

15. Thomas Wachtendorf
Conclusion
1. The initial question
2. Classification
3. World-picture
4. Ethics as Mythology
5. Attitude
6. Seeing-as
On Ethics and Mythology
A world-picture rests on mythology and because
of ethical sentences being part of this mythology,
each world-picture also has a ethical foundation.
To accept or decline certain sentences influences
this mythology and therefore changes ethics.
Ethics, in conclusion, is not just discussing ethical
questions, but rather changing one’s way of seeing
the world – as we go along.
To be ethical in this sense means to adopt a
certain attitude by taking ethical sentences into
consideration and accept or decline them.

16. On Ethics And Mythology
A Wittgensteinian Point ofView
Thomas Wachtendorf
wachtendorf@akademiephilosophie.de
Research center Erkenntnis, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Wittgensteinian Approaches to Moral Philosophy (Second Edition)
University of Leuven, Belgium