Mysticism: Solipsism or Community? Wittgenstein and Weil: Beyond the Alternative Between ‘I’ and ‘We’

Philosophical and theological reflections on mystical experiences tend to emphasize a dual dimension—individual and social—of mysticism. ‘Mystical’ refers to the subjective experience of the individual, as well as to the ‘mystical body’ formed by the community of believers. Starting from the observations of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Simone Weil, I contend that the dichotomy between the individual and the community is insufficient to explain the type of (de)subjectification experienced in the mystical. In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein addresses the solipsistic hypothesis and ultimately reduces it to a form of mystical realism, where the ‘I’ coincides with the limits of the world. Similarly, in her Cahiers, Weil identifies the ego as precisely what hinders the mystical experience, yet simultaneously denounces the risks inherent in the feeling of belonging to a community. Building on the work of Wittgenstein and Weil, I will outline a third, impersonal approach to the mystical that moves beyond the tension between solipsism and community.