The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that was published during his lifetime. The project had a broad goal: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science. It is recognized by philosophers as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century. G. E. Moore originally suggested the work's Latin title as homage to the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by Baruch Spinoza.
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.
6.5 "For an answer which cannot be expressed, the question too cannot be expressed.
"The riddle does not exist.
"If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered.
Although the historical significance of Tractatus is for its influence on the philosophers of logical empiricism, by providing them with a framework for a philosophy of science, and hence engineering, Wittgenstein actually wrote it as a work on ethics.[citation needed] See his propositions 6.4 onward.
But his motivation for writing, and the style of presentation, follow Frege and Russell, below.
Tractatus 1–2
1 "The world is all that is the case.
1.1 "The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
These famous propositions, starting from 1, and ending at 7, are striking for their simplicity and ambition.
Proposition 6.5 (and its consequence) can not be understood until one realizes that Wittgenstein was a son of a family at the apex of Vienneseculture, the capital of an empire (now vanished). In today's terms, the answer 6.5 is that from a man who some might view as possessed of the highest intellect, moral discrimination, and worldly wealth. He literally could do anything he wished. But his father, Karl, thought him untalented, in comparison to the rest of the family, which included musicians, and artists.[dubious–discuss] He was schooled at home until age 14 (he later imposed his ideals on his hapless students after he had completed Tractatus, and had undertaken training as a schoolteacher (1920)). He was assigned to study engineering and undertook the curriculum of a mechanical engineer at Berlin Technische Hochschule (1906).
Vienna is the federal capital, largest city and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of about 1.9 million, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today it is the second largest German-speaking city after Berlin and just before Hamburg. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups.
Frege and Russell
He later attended the University of Manchester in England as a doctoral student in aeronautical engineering (1908). Thus Wittgenstein undertook the study of the foundation of mathematics, when he began to design jet propellers. But he refused to accept the propositions he encountered and brought his questions to Frege, who had undertaken a program to base mathematics on logic (1878). Frege, unable to counter his questions, referred him to Russell. Russell, by this time, had completed a work on Frege's program (1903), and was collaborating with Whitehead on Principia Mathematica. He duly appeared at Cambridge (1911), where Russell assigned him a tutor, K.E. Johnson, for logic. After one hour, Johnson reported that Wittgenstein was teaching him. But Russell had discovered some antinomies in logic, seriously calling into question Frege's program. Frege's program for logic as the basis of mathematics was now in shambles. Wittgenstein thus retired to Norway to work out his ideas (1913), and perhaps rescue Frege's program. This was the basis for his Tractatus.
The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England, formed in 2004 by the merger of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and the Victoria University of Manchester. The University of Manchester is a red brick university, a product of the civic university movement of the late 19th century.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. At various points in his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, although he also confessed that his sceptical nature had led him to feel that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense." Russell was born in Monmouthshire into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the United Kingdom.
The Principia Mathematica is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913. In 1925–27, it appeared in a second edition with an important Introduction to the Second Edition, an Appendix A that replaced ✸9 and all-new Appendix B and Appendix C. PM is not to be confused with Russell's 1903 The Principles of Mathematics. PM was originally conceived as a sequel volume to Russell's 1903 Principles, but as PM states, this became an unworkable suggestion for practical and philosophical reasons: "The present work was originally intended by us to be comprised in a second volume of Principles of Mathematics... But as we advanced, it became increasingly evident that the subject is a very much larger one than we had supposed; moreover on many fundamental questions which had been left obscure and doubtful in the former work, we have now arrived at what we believe to be satisfactory solutions."
While in Norway, his father Karl died (1913), leaving him heir to a fortune, which he attempted to give away (much of it to his surviving siblings, on the condition that they not give any back to him). By 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was at war with Russell's British Empire, and Wittgenstein volunteered to fight for the Empire of Habsburg Vienna.
Hertz' theory of models and Russell's theory of meaning
While a soldier, before the serious fighting, he found a magazine article about a lawsuit involving a baby carriage and a truck. The court case re-enacted the incident with models. It was this event which made him realize that the subject of this process could be described by pictures as well as in words—the genesis of his picture theory of language (Tractatus 2.*). But this idea was already endemic in Viennese thought.
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment is in the plaintiff's favor, and a variety of court orders may be issued to enforce a right, award damages, or impose a temporary or permanent injunction to prevent an act or compel an act. A declaratory judgment may be issued to prevent future legal disputes.
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration; smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, such as in the case of refuse trucks, fire trucks, concrete mixers, and suction excavators. In American English, a commercial vehicle without a trailer or other articulation is formally a "straight truck" while one designed specifically to pull a trailer is not a truck but a "tractor".
Physical model is a smaller or larger physical copy of an object. The object being modelled may be small or large.
Logic is the systematic study of the form of valid inference, and the most general laws of truth. A valid inference is one where there is a specific relation of logical support between the assumptions of the inference and its conclusion. In ordinary discourse, inferences may be signified by words such as therefore, thus, hence, ergo, and so on.
A fact is a thing that is known to be consistent with objective reality and can be proven to be true with evidence. For example, "this sentence contains words" is a linguistic fact, and "the sun is a star" is a cosmological fact. Further, "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States" and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated" are also both facts, of the historical type. All of these statements have the epistemic quality of being "ontologically superior" to opinion or interpretation — they are either categorically necessary or supported by adequate historical documentation.
Thought encompasses an "aim-oriented flow of ideas and associations that can lead to a reality-oriented conclusion". Although thinking is an activity of an existential value for humans, there is still no consensus as to how it is adequately defined or understood.
In this case, the elementary propositions, say a. stand for ordinary sentences in ordinary language. They are not meant to be further analyzed, but are taken as givens.
5.2522
"The general term of the formal series a, O' a, O' O' a, ... I write thus: "[a, x, O' x]". This expression in brackets is a variable. ...
Wittgenstein thus gives a notation which expresses an inductive form.
6 "The most general form of proposition is [p, ξ, N( ξ )].
In this notation, ξ expresses the set of the arguments of truth function ξ, and N( ξ ) is the power set of ξ.
6.241 proves 2*2=4 in one sentence, a feat which took Russell hundreds of pages to prove 2+2=4, as his demonstration that he believes his method is more powerful.
6.33 "We do not believe a priori in a law of conservation, but we know a priori the possibility of a logical form.
The conservation laws of physics stand as a statement of belief, in contrast with the a priori character of the logical form in 6.
Historically, the statements from 6.4 onward were ignored by the Vienna Circle and the other proponents of logical empiricism, as they simply did not know what to make of them. Wittgenstein was not present to bolster his case, as he was a schoolteacher and gardener at the moment that Tractatus was published. Afterward, he did not help his case by reciting the pacifist poems of Rabindranath Tagore to them, in place of analytic discussion. Indeed, 6.41 below seems to have a different character from the chain of thought stated above.
6.41 "The sense of the world must lie outside of the world. ... In it, there is no value, - and if there were, it would be of no value. ...
6.42 "Hence also there can be no ethical propositions. ...
6.421 "... Ethics are transcendental. ...
6.423 "Of the will as the bearer of the ethical we cannot speak.
6.5 "For an answer which cannot be expressed, the question too cannot be expressed.
7 "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent".
But 6.41 needs to be re-examined in this chain of justification. Statement 6.41 appears to be an appeal; the word must shows up in striking contrast to the rest of Tractatus, which consist of declarative statements. His usual economy in words is replaced by repetition. 6.41 is revisited below.
Wittgenstein himself was an exemplar of 7, by acting instead of speaking, an ethical position. What actually impelled Wittgenstein, according to Janik and Toulmin, was the role models of a few men like Fritz Mauthner, as Wittgenstein himself set out to live the example of 7, as an engineer, a soldier, a schoolteacher, an architect, a gardener, a professor, a hospital orderly. As a professor, he attempted to follow up on Tractatus, with his posthumous Philosophical Investigations.
There is an ominous side-note to this action; at the same time that this Viennese was living his ideals, the forces of fascism were also acting to destroy the existing world order. These forces appeared not to be based on existing ethical principles, but on rather different ones based solely on might; the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore meant nothing to them, either.
6.41 revisited
Because 6.41 is different in character from the other propositions, a review is appropriate. Here we use the machinery of deontic modal logic, with the following conventions, but tag 6.41's statements with the type of statement:
¬contingency is not necessarily so but which is actually so, and which could have been otherwise.
necessary if it must be so
6.41"The sense of the world must lie outside of the world. ¬In the world everything is as it is and happens as it does happen. In it, there is no value, - and if there were, it would be of no value.
"If there is a value which is of value, it must lie outside all happening and being-so. ¬ For all happening and being-so is accidental.
Not ¬"What makes it non-accidental cannot lie in the world, for otherwise this would then again be accidental.
"It must lie outside the world.
6.41 is an example of deontic modal logic. Wittgenstein is making statements of necessity of ethical action, rather than basing actions on contingent or accidental results, which he equates with the world. The doubling of the phrase no value is an indication that the statements are being made for different modalities.
From a humanist point of view, his actions taken, were to negate the accidental parts of his life:
the accident of his wealth, which he attempted to negate by giving away;
the accident of his position in society, which he attempted to negate by volunteering for the ranks in the army, rather than accepting a commission in the army;
the accident of being a professor in wartime, which he attempted to negate by becoming a hospital orderly.
Even his last words "tell them I've had a wonderful life" bespeak someone who was evaluating the sense of his life (and must have been so doing in the other examples just stated).
Related Research Articles
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Logical atomism is a philosophy that originated in the early 20th century with the development of analytic philosophy. Its principal exponent was the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. It is also widely held that the early work of his Austrian-born pupil and colleague, Ludwig Wittgenstein, defend a version of logical atomism. Some philosophers in the Vienna Circle were also influenced by logical atomism. Gustav Bergmann also developed a form of logical atomism that focused on an ideal phenomalistic language, particularly in his discussions of J.O. Urmson's work on analysis.
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In philosophy, Wittgenstein's ladder is a metaphor set out by Ludwig Wittgenstein about learning. In what may be a deliberate reference to Søren Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, the penultimate proposition of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus reads:
6.54
My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.
References
Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin (1973, 1996), Wittgenstein's ViennaISBN1-56663-132-7. Includes Notes, Index, 314 pp. Over 260 books and articles cited in the bibliography. Toulmin was a student of Wittgenstein up to the time of his resignation from Cambridge.
They cite Fritz Mauthner's Critique of Language (Sprachkritik). Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache, 3 vols, Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta (1901-3), Wittgenstein cites this as 4.0031 with a claim his view is different. Janik and Toulmin note that his view began to converge with Mauthner's upon his re-entry into philosophy in 1928.
They cite the Brenner Circle as the pathway for Wittgenstein's donations to Rilke. For more, see Richard Detsch (1990) Georg Trakl and the Brenner Circle (American University Studies. Series I, Germanic Languages and Literature, Vol 91)
Jaakko Hintikka (2000) On WittgensteinISBN0-534-57594-3 p.55 cites W's accus. of Carnap upon receiving a 1932 preprint.
Hans Sluga and David G. Stern, eds. (1996). Cambridge Companion to WittgensteinISBN0-521-46591-5
Marie McGinn (1997) Wittgenstein and the Philosophical InvestigationsISBN0-415-11191-9
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1939) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Revised Edition. G. H. von Wright, R. Rhees (eds.), G. E. M. Anscombe (trans.) ISBN0-262-73067-7
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Vermischte Bemerkungen (his personal notes taken 1914-1944) packaged as Culture and Value (1977), Peter Winch, trans. ISBN0-226-90435-0
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief Cyril Barrett, ed. ISBN0-520-01354-9
Zach, Richard, (1999), "Completeness before Post: Bernays, Hilbert, and the development of propositional logic", Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 5(3): 331-366.
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