Wittgenstein on miracles

Abstract

In this essay, three passages are illustrated and analysed in which Wittgenstein discusses the theme or question of the miracle: a passage from the Notebooks 1914-1916; a longer and more articulate passage from the Lecture on Ethics; finally, a diary entry published under the title Movements of Thought. The aim of the present contribution is to understand the significance of these references to miracles, that Wittgenstein makes at different stages and moments of his philosophy, and to show that what Wittgenstein says about miracles and the miraculous is closely linked to his way of seeing and practising philosophy – as distinct from science and its causal explanations.