IN THE TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS, Ludwig Wittgenstein made the case that it is impossible to derive the “ought” from the “is.” For this reason, science must remain indifferent to the larger question to what end people should live their lives. As the philosopher famously put it, things one cannot speak about must be passed over in silence. Parodying Wittgenstein's conclusion, Musil's hero follows the maxim “to keep silent when one has nothing to say” (schweigen, wo man nichts zu sagen hat; MWQ 265).

Of course, not being able to say something is not quite the same as having nothing to say. Thus, in The Man Without Qualities the ethical dilemma posed by the sciences is approached from a different angle. Musil's characters become disenchanted with the world of ideas not because there is nothing worthwhile knowing but because there is too much to know. Science has created a paradoxical situation: the more science advances, the more ignorant the individual becomes. Diotima's “agreement machine,” as Ulrich describes the political function of her “salon,” cannot process the input it invites (1206). Rather than being pushed to its limits by the charge of finding the greatest and finest humanitarian idea, the collective imagination of society's most creative minds is being undercut by factual knowledge. The unity of reason is undone from within. As the narrator remarks, “Diotima found that even celebrities always talked in twos, because the time had already come when a person could talk sensibly and to the point with at most one other person” (105).