Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus"Philosophy is not a theory," asserted Austro-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), "but an activity." In this 1921 opus, his only philosophical work published during his lifetime, Wittgenstein defined the object of philosophy as the logical clarification of thoughts and proposed the solution to most philosophic problems by means of a critical method of linguistic analysis. In proclaiming philosophy as a matter of logic rather than of metaphysics, Wittgenstein created a sensation among intellectual circles that influenced the development of logical positivism and changed the direction of 20th-century thought. |
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... speaking of a " complex " we are , as will appear later , sinning against the rules of philosophical grammar , but this is unavoidable at the outset . " Most propositions and questions that have been written about philosophical matters ...
... speak of a logical picture of a reality when we wish to imply only so much resemblance as is essential to its being a picture in any sense , that is to say , when we wish to imply no more than identity of logical form . The logical ...
... speaking be defined , but we can explain what we mean by saying that facts are what make propositions true , or false . Facts may contain parts which are facts or may " " contain no such parts ; for example : 11 INTRODUCTION.
... speaking of the totality of things , and it will be found that any other method that may be suggested is equally fallacious : so , at least , Wittgenstein contends and , I think , rightly . This amounts to saying that " object " is a ...
... speak logically are nevertheless thought by him to exist , and are the subject - matter of his mysticism . The totality resulting from our hierarchy would be not merely logically inexpressible , but a fiction , a mere delusion , and in ...