Daily High Culture 10: What Good is the Afterlife?

Classical Rebellion

Daily High Culture #10 “The real question of life after death isn't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” Ludwig Wittgenstein Here we go. Wittgenstein was a king. He always wanted us to stop asking questions to which we could never know the answer. This quote is atypical of his philosophy. Let’s say life after death exists, how does that change anything? A fair question. Do I think I know the answer? Absolutely not but maybe we can explore some of the issues it brings up. I can say that Wittenstein is putting his foot into a stream that flows from Dostoyevsky to Nietzsche to Camus and beyond. That stream of thinking is whether or not we give up justice in this world based on the hope of a perfected justice in the next. At this point, I think it safe to say that the answer is no. We need justice here and now but that sentiment wasn’t always the case. For thousands of years the question was often answered as yes, we give up justice now because the justice of the almighty will correct all wrongs. The idea of justice for all didn’t start to take on significance until the Age of Enlightenment, the age which produced The U.S. Constitution and, maybe more importantly, The Bill of Rights. How exactly would a confirmed life after death solve any of our problems? First of all, we’d have to know what the next life entails. Is it another go around here in this reality? Is it the dual kingdoms of Heaven and Hell? Do we retain our personality, our skills, our talents, or is it a blank slate? Is the time scale linear or cyclical? Are we still human or something else? We quickly realize that this question has far more problems than answers. Do you believe in life after death? Yes. Ok, which one? The Heaven and Hell version. In this version, billions of people are dying and going to hell for eternity. That’s a big problem. What do we do about it? Every second someone dies and goes to suffer for eternity. All our activities should be directed toward preventing that from happening. In this scenario, problems are created as opposed to solved. Let’s go with a blank slate life after death. That creates a number of different problems based on personality types. Some would embrace complete criminality while others might embrace pursuits of pure pleasure while others might continue just as they are. Ultimately this life becomes meaningless. This version of life after death is the same as no life after death. What Wittgenstein is trying to get us to understand is that the real question is what are we going to do with this life? The answer to that question is separate from any life after death scenarios. Based on this world and our context within it, what are we going to do? How are we going to live? The world we live in has concepts such as love, truth, and freedom. Does the next world? We don’t know, can’t know, and we shouldn’t even ask the question, according to Wittgenstein. However, we can busy ourselves and find meaning within this world through our work, our joy, our loves, and our passions. The piece of music for this quote is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20. I’d recommend listening to the entire piece but if time is pressing, the second movement will suffice. I’ve chosen Mozart in order to honor Wittgenstein’s personal tastes. He grew up in Vienna and Brahms and Mahler were frequent guests at the home of his parents. Yet Wittgenstein was convinced that great music ended with the death of Beethoven and that Mozart was the quintessential composer. Why Mozart’s 20th Piano Concerto in particular? No reason except that it is beautiful and has the sound of truth about it. The piece of art is Christ in Limbo by Hieronymus Bosch. Very few artists can give us a vision of potential realities after this one better than Hieronymus Bosch. The question is, do we like the visions he is giving us?