Bataille and Wittgenstein: on mysticism, silence, and inner experience
Journal for Cultural Research September 24, 2024 J. Bell
Georges Bataille and Ludwig Wittgenstein, despite their different intellectual traditions, share parallels in how they understand language and mystical experience. Both thinkers argue that mystical experience pushes beyond conventional discourse, expressing antiphilosophical, spiritual visions. However, Wittgenstein's deeply private and agnostic Christianity contrasts sharply with Bataille's atheological experience of the death of God. Where Wittgenstein advocates clarity of expression or silence, Bataille uses transgressive, poetic syntax and erotic imagery to press against the impossibility of words. For Bataille, silence is active and imperative to communication, opening against the closure of reason. Paradoxically, Bataille's atheological writings approach a new summit of communication attainable only in the absence of God.