Influence of Leo Tolstoy’s personality on L. Wittgenstein, Ethical aspect

The article examines the ethical influence of Leo Tolstoy on the philosophical views of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It focuses on an analysis of the ideas set out in Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief, where a distinctive conception of the moral perfection of the person is formulated and the Gospel is understood as a practical guide to life. The article traces the biographical and intellectual connections between the two thinkers, including their engagement with the problems of faith, inner rebirth, and responsibility toward other people. It is shown that Wittgenstein’s turn to Tolstoy during the First World War became an important stage in his spiritual quest and influenced the formation of his views on conscience, guilt, and authentic life. Special attention is paid to comparing their views on the meaning of life, the possibility of attaining harmony with the world, and the role of art as a means of spiritual purification and self-restraint. The article explores how Tolstoy’s ideas of non-resistance to evil, the necessity of self-discipline, and radical stringency toward oneself were received by Wittgenstein and shaped his ethical and philosophical constructions, despite the cultural and historical distance between them, as well as the divergences in their intellectual traditions and in the philosophical and cultural context of their respective epochs.

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