Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

This is a book that everyone interested in philosophy and intellectual history should read. LW is the most significant philosopher of the 20thc and this is the only book that he published in his lifetime. Since his views changed somewhat between the Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations you have to begin here.His basic argument here is that “the facts in logical space are the world,” and that to say something meaningful rather than nonsensical (which carries no sarcastic overtones) we must speak and write “in logical space”. Colloquial speech is far too slippery and problematic, but the majority of philosophy is cast in such speech and, thus, in LW’s view, addresses ‘problems’ that aren’t problems at all. Hence, his purpose is to liberate us from our concerns with regard to those problems. As he famously concludes, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” In another context he compares our liberation to that of a fly that has entered a bottle seeking sweetness and been trapped there. His role is to let the fly out of the bottle.The text is, by turns, very difficult and very exhilarating. Approximately 20% of the argument involves the use of mathematics and symbolic logic. LW is at pains to respond to the arguments of Frege, Russell, Moore and Whitehead and unless one is immersed in that literature, LW’s comments are a tough go. (A knowledge of Kant and especially Hume is also a must.) At the same time he can move from the staccato propositions of the analytic philosopher to the rhetoric of Pascal:“Skepticism is not irrefutable, but palpably senseless, if it would doubt where a question cannot be asked.”“We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course there is then no question left, and just this is the answer.”“There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself; it is the mystical.”While the book is very challenging it is also very moving. LW’s portion of the text is also very brief, less than 100 pp. This is a reprint of the 1922 Ogden translation, with a preface by Bertrand Russell and the index from the 1955 printing.Highly recommended. (I also strongly recommend Ray Monk’s book, How to Read Wittgenstein, and his biography, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius.)

In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein “deals with the problems of philosophy and shows … that the method of formulating these problems rests on the misunderstanding of the logic of our language.”Hence, the author demonstrates that the solution to most philosophic problems becomes a critical method of linguistic analysis.Tractatus begins with ontology and the state of affairs of the world is described. From there the book deals largely with the question of how language works and how it can describe the world accurately. Many forms of language (e.g. names and propositions) reflect different objective parts of reality (e.g. objects and facts). Logic is then discussed as it pertains to tautologies, contradictions and propositions. From this claim stems the conclusion that that the laws of science are not logical “laws,” but a means that we use to express reality—hence, science does not in fact explain our world but merely describes it.Although the author embraces logic, he ironically ventures into the mystical on many occasions. Some of such highlights of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus include the proposal that most philosophical propositions are senseless (4.003), the relativity of “free” will and the lack of inner necessity of causality (5.1362), and the inability to recognize either the truth or falsehood from non-logical propositions. Wittgenstein brilliantly elaborates on widely accepted, yet wholly non-certain, everyday happenings (6.363II to 6.372) and clarifies that all ethics is transcendental (6.42I). In effect, the author posits that morality is in fact objective because subjective morality stems from happenstance, and is therefore meaningless.All potential readers should be acutely aware that this book is a very, very tough read. You may find yourself taking several minutes to read through one short page and then several hours to digest what it is you in fact just read. Either way, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a terse, powerful, enigmatic and notable in its ability to whisk the dormant imagination into shape. The intellectual ramifications of being able to fully grasp and comprehend the material are limitless.

Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a fine example of “ordinary language” philosophy and, as such, its goal—similar to that of logical positivism—is to help us think and express ourselves more clearly. The “language of everyday life” (3.323) is partly, when not completely, to blame for our "confusions" (3.324) because “very often” words have different meanings in different contexts and, even in any one context, “very often” words have different meanings for different people (3.323). Wittgenstein encourages us to logically clarify our thoughts; to elucidate; to “make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which [“very often”] are, as it were, opaque and blurred” (4.112). Be logical! Clarify! Elucidate!There is much to be gained from this book, even if the sections in which he uses symbolic logic and truth tables are skimmed or skipped.