I first came across the quote in Paul Johnston’s book ‘Wittgenstein and Moral Philosophy’ (still one of the best books on Wittgenstein). The quote itself comes from his notes collected in Culture and Value, and was written in 1937, in the midst of discussions about Kierkegaard and the gospels.

The quotation from Kierkegaard that Johnston couples it with is this:

It is from this side, in the first instance, that objection may be made to modern philosophy; not that it has a mistaken presupposition, but that it has a comical presupposition, occasioned by its having forgotten, in a sort of world-historical absent-mindedness, what it means to be a human being. Not indeed, what it means to be a human being in general; for this is the sort of thing that one might even induce a speculative philosopher to agree to; but what it means that you and I and he are human beings, each one for himself. (Concluding Unscientific Postscript: 109)

There are a number of other remarks from Wittgenstein (I know much more about Wittgenstein than Kierkegaard) that I would link in to the theme. One of the most important is his reference to William James, a philosopher who influenced Wittgenstein greatly. In a conversation with Drury he was recommending James; Drury said ‘I always enjoy reading William James. He is such a human person’ and Wittgenstein responded ‘That is what makes him a good philosopher. He was a real human being’.

The other one on my mind at the moment is this:

It is very remarkable that we should be inclined to think of civilization – houses, streets, cars etc. – as distancing man from his source, from what is sublime, infinite and so on. Our civilized environment, along with the trees and plants in it, then seems as though it were cheaply wrapped in cellophane and isolated from everything great, from God, as it were. That is a remarkable picture that forces itself on us. (Culture and Value, 1946 (NB Fergus Kerr’s translation))

That is what I shall be exploring and writing about.