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Chapter 2 - Modality in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

By
Juliet Floyd  and
Sanford Shieh
Edited by
José L. Zalabardo
José L. Zalabardo
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Wittgenstein’s Tractatus deploys modal vocabulary, especially “possibility.” Some readers take this to signal commitment to substantive modal theories. For others, it is metaphysical nonsense to be thrown away. We steer a middle path. We uncover the central role of possibility in Wittgenstein’s philosophical development from criticism of Russell’s multiple-relation theory of judgment to the conception of propositions as pictures in the Tractatus. In this conception, modality is not the subject matter of theorizing but an ineluctable aspect of picturing of reality whose showing forth Wittgenstein aims to help us see by operationalizing the construction of propositions.

Keywords

Judgmentpropositionpossibilitystructureformpicturefactcomplexordernecessitymodalityoperationaspect
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Chapter
Information
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
A Critical Guide
 , pp. 24 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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