SOURCE: "On Thinking More Crazily Than Philosophers: Wittgenstein, Knowledge and Religious Beliefs," in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1986, pp. 161-75.

High is an American writer and educator. In the following essay, he comments on issues of certainty and religious belief in the writings of Wittgenstein.

In what has been posthumously published as Culture and Value Ludwig Wittgenstein provides us with the following aphoristic remark: "It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems." I think we can say, in retrospect, that much of the thought of Wittgenstein did just that—think "even more crazily than philosophers do." That is one of the reasons why his work has inspired philosophical innovation, evoked criticism and occasioned various misunderstandings. Wittgenstein did not formulate standard philosophical reflections in either thought or writing style. He was among other things a cultural critic who...