Tractatus Logico-philosophicusThe Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (widely abbreviated and cited as TLP) (Latin for Logical Philosophical Treatise or Treatise on Logic and Philosophy) 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. Wittgenstein wrote the notes for the Tractatus while he was a soldier during World War I and completed it during a military leave in the summer of 1918. It was first published in German in 1921 as Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung. The Tractatus was influential chiefly amongst the logical positivist philosophers of the Vienna Circle, such as Rudolf Carnap and Friedrich Waismann. Bertrand Russell's article "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" is presented as a working out of ideas that he had learned from Wittgenstein. The Tractatus employs an austere and succinct literary style. The work contains almost no arguments as such, but rather consists of declarative statements, or passages, that are meant to be self-evident. The statements are hierarchically numbered, with seven basic propositions at the primary level (numbered 1-7), with each sub-level being a comment on or elaboration of the statement at the next higher level (e.g., 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13). In all, the Tractatus comprises 526 numbered statements. Wittgenstein's later works, notably the posthumously published Philosophical Investigations, criticised many of his earlier ideas in the Tractatus. |
From inside the book
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... objects in the reality correspond the elements of the picture : the picture itself is a fact . The fact that things have a certain relation to each other is represented by the fact that in the picture its elements have a certain ...
... objects are represented by signs . The so - called logical " constants " are not represented by signs , but are ... object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts . Philosophy is not a theory but an activity . A ...
... objects there would still be objects and atomic facts ( 4.2211 ) . The assertion that there is a certain complex reduces to the assertion that its constituents are related in a certain way , which is the assertion of a fact : thus if we ...
... objects in the world , " or " there are an infinite number of objects in the world . " Objects can only be mentioned in connexion with some definite property . We can say " there are more than three objects which are human , " or ...
... object , but a co - ordination of facts by means of a co - ordination of their objects " ( 5.542 ) . What Mr Wittgenstein says here is said so shortly that its point is not likely to be clear to those who have not in mind the ...