It might seem, according to this revelation, that Wittgenstein's work does indeed eliminate absolutism. But, there are several ways in which I believe an absolute foundation creeps into Wittgenstein's work. First of all, he affirms the notion that there exists a real world, of absolute nature, but because humans are trapped within their language games, they will never have knowledge of it. This is similar to the thought he laid out in an earlier work, “Tractatus Logico Philosophicus.” In this work, he believes that there exists a real world, and man can have knowledge and understand this world, at the very least symbolically, if he can get his language to reflect that reality. In other words, he thinks language is like a map, it is not the real "land," but it reflects what it looks like, how it's shaped, and what is its general layout. He says, “Propositions can represent the whole reality, but they cannot represent what they must have in common with reality in order to able represent it--the logical form. To be able to represent the logical form, we should have to be able to put ourselves with the propositions outside logic, that is outside the world.”
This has view has a couple of very important implications. First of all, as stated before, Wittgenstein affirms the existence of a real world, which exists absolutely and immutably. Second, and much more importantly, Wittgenstein strongly affirms the existence and importance of logic. In “On Certainty” he says, “What counts as an adequate test of a statement belongs to logic. It belongs to the description of the language game.” This is, like with Ayer, is a powerful foundational element. The basis of understanding, for Wittgenstein, is reduced to reason, or logic. Of course, logic is very absolute, fixed, unchanging, and as stated before points to extant Truth lying behind the world as foundational. What is perhaps more interesting about this is the implication that it creates. First, if logic is the absolute of Wittgenstein's system, it must originate from somewhere other than the “language game,” for if it lay within the “language game,” it would only be of use to the one inhabiting that particular language game. So, the truth of logic must find its origin in the real world, of which Wittgenstein says we are supposed to have no certain knowledge. But, if logic becomes certainty within the “language game,” then we can be certain of one truth related to the real world, namely, it is the origin of logic, and as such is either logical or holds the truth, as elementary, truths which would support the laws of logic.
Philosopher Three: Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche's philosophy is well known for its projection of pluralistic, relativistic, or perspectival images. Of the contemporary philosophers, in fact, he is probably the most strongly affiliated with the point of view. Nietzsche's philosophy falls under that category of perspectivalism. Perspectivalism holds the assumption that all who do philosophy, in way somewhat similar to Wittgenstein's “language game,” that all philosophers operate from a distinct perspective, and no therefore, no particular philosopher has the monopoly on truth. Along these lines, Nietzsche said once of Plato, “If he (Plato) had said “this is a likely story,” he would have been the greatest philosopher who ever lived.” In other words, what really pestered Nietzsche about philosophical discourse was that so many philosophers throughout history have claimed to have captured truth, and he believed that this, in absolute sense, was ridiculous.
Nietzsche's perspectival philosophy is perhaps best demonstrated in his work, “Beyond Good and Evil.” In this work, Nietzsche makes the claim that the way philosophers have dealt with Truth, truth and falsity, has been very misguided and feeble. He says, “Supposing truth is a woman--what then? Are there not grounds for the suspicion that all philosophers, insofar as they were dogmatists, have been very inexpert about women?” From here, Nietzsche embarks on his journey of deconstructing what philosophers of history had labored to produce. He believes that all of society is sick and in a mode of perpetual self-deception. He believes that one of the cardinal fallacies of philosophy, historically and in his present, is the centering on good and evil, right and wrong. Nietzsche wishes to dispense with the belief that true and false, good and evil, exist as such by means of some sort of “out there” objective standard. He asserts that these sorts of absolutist views are absurd. Nietzsche then makes his claim about the search from truth and where it originates. He believes search for truth is provoked by one thing, man's desire or will to power. Nietzsche believed that the origin of action for all men lies in their desire to put themselves in a position of superiority over those who would become the subordinates of the one in power. He claims that what lies at the root of all human existence and experience is man's desire for independence, autonomy, and power.
