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Series:   Elements in the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein

Reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2021

Mauro Luiz Engelmann
Mauro Luiz Engelmann
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Summary

This Element presents a concise and accessible view of the central arguments of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Starting from the difficulties found in historical and current debates, drawing on the background of Russell's philosophy, and grounded in the ladder structure expressed in the numbering system of the book, this Element presents the central arguments of the Tractatus in three lines of thought. The first concerns the role of the so-called 'ontology' and its relationship to the method of the Tractatus and its logical symbolism, which displays the formal essence of language and world. The second deals with the symbolic unity of language and its role in the 'ladder structure' and explains how and why the book is not self-defeating. The third elucidates Wittgenstein's claim to have solved in essentials all philosophical problems, whose very formulation, he says, rests on misunderstandings.
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Keywords

WittgensteinTractatusresolute readingformal unity of languageladder metaphor
Type
Element
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Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Online ISBN: 9781108887892
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 29 July 2021

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References

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Grasshoff, G. (1997) Hertzian Objects in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. British Journal of the History of Philosophy 5:1, pp. 87–119.Google Scholar
Hacker, P. M. S. (1986) Insight and Illusion. 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
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Hylton, P. (1992) Russell, Idealism, and the Emergence of Analytic Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
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Kuusela, O. (2019) Wittgenstein on Logic and the Method of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Landini, G. (2007) Wittgenstein’s Apprenticeship with Russell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lugg, A. (2013) Wittgenstein’s True Thoughts. Nordic Wittgenstein Review 2:1, pp. 33–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malcolm, N. (1986) Nothing is Hidden. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Marion, M. (1998) Wittgenstein, Finitism, and the Foundations of Mathematics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
McGinn, M. (1999) Between Metaphysics and Nonsense: Elucidation in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Philosophical Quarterly 49:147, pp. 491–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinn, M. (2006) Elucidating the “Tractatus.” Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. (1988) Wittgenstein: A Life; Young Ludwig (1889–1921). Duckworth.Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. (2002) Approaches to Wittgenstein (Collected Papers). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
McManus, D. (2010) The Enchantment of Words: Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus.” Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
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Moore, G. E. (1922) The Conception of Intrinsic Value. In Philosophical Studies. New York: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Mounce, H. O. (1989) Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus”: An Introduction. Chicago:The University of Chicago Press, Midway Reprint Edition.Google Scholar
Moyal-Sharrock, D. (2007) The Good Sense of Nonsense. Philosophy 82, pp. 147–177.Google Scholar
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