Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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Cosimo, Inc., May 1, 2007 - Philosophy - 116 pages
"Austrian philosopher LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889 1951) was hugely influential on 20th-century philosophy, and here, he constructs a series of carefully and precisely numbered propositions on the relationship between language, logic, and reality, using a numbering system to show nested relationships between the propositions. Considered one of the major recent works of philosophy a reputation enhanced, undoubtedly, by Bertrand Russell s glowing introduction this edition is a reproduction of the translation by C.K. Ogden, first published in 1922, for which Wittgenstein himself assisted in the preparation of the English-language manuscript. Students of philosophy and those fascinated by the history of ideas will want a copy of this essential volume. "

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Contents

Section 1
7
Section 2
25
Section 3
27
Section 4
29
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Page 35 - Propositions can represent the whole of reality, but they cannot represent what they must have in common with reality in order to be able to represent it — logical form.
Page 46 - Most propositions and questions, that have been written about philosophical matters, are not false, but senseless. We cannot, therefore, answer questions of this kind at all, but only state their senselessness. Most questions and propositions of the philosophers result from the fact that we do not understand the logic of our language.
Page 108 - We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all.
Page 108 - The correct method in philosophy would really be the following: to say nothing except what can be said, ie, propositions of natural science— ie, something that has nothing to do with philosophy— and then, whenever someone else wanted to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had failed to give a meaning to certain signs in his propositions.
Page 109 - 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 up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.
Page 53 - The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a theory but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. The result of philosophy is not a number of " philosophical propositions ", but to make propositions clear.
Page 24 - These difficulties suggest to my mind some such possibility as this: that every language has, as Mr. Wittgenstein says, a structure concerning which, in the language, nothing can be said, but that there may be another language dealing with the structure of the first language, and having itself a new structure, and that to this hierarchy of languages there may be no limit (Russell, 1922, p.
Page 108 - For doubt can only exist where there is a question ; a question only where there is an answer, and this only where something can be said.
Page 47 - ... from the score, and which makes it possible to derive the symphony from the groove on the gramophone record, and', using the first rule, to derive the score again. That is what constitutes the inner similarity between these things which seem to be constructed in such entirely different ways. And that rule is the law of projection which projects the symphony into the language of musical notation. It is the rule for translating this language into the language of gramophone records.
Page 107 - Is this eternal life not as enigmatic as our present one? The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time.

About the author (2007)

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic. He was best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. Together with G.E. Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the main founders of modern analytic philosophy. Together with Kurt Gödel, he is regularly credited with being one of the most important logicians of the twentieth century. Over the course of a long career, Russell also made contributions to a broad range of subjects, including the history of ideas, ethics, political and educational theory, and religious studies. General readers have benefited from his many popular writings on a wide variety of topics. After a life marked by controversy--including dismissals from both Trinity College, Cambridge, and City College, New York--Russell was awarded the Order of Merit in 1949 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Noted also for his many spirited anti-nuclear protests and for his campaign against western involvement in the Vietnam War, Russell remained a prominent public figure until his death at the age of 97.

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