Abstract

Wittgenstein's 'Ethics and aesthetics are one' is not the optimistic unity of ethics and esthetics favored by Kierkegaard's judge William in Either/Or. Wittgenstein's position differs also from the more 'cosmetic' side of Kierkegaard's esthetics in Either/Or. In the last instance however, Wittgenstein cannot be saved from Kierkegaard's criticism of the esthetic. This because the ontology of the Tractatus, Wittgenstein's 'right' view on reality, implied in 'Ethics and aesthetics are one'. Wittgenstein reduces life to loose moments, to a reality that would be, for Kierkegaard, esthetic through and through, as would be Wittgenstein's conception of language as a series of timeless pictures