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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... represented by the fact that in the picture its elements have a certain relation to one another . " In the picture ... represent it after its manner - rightly or falsely — is its form of representation " ( 2.161 , 2.17 ) . We speak of ...
... representing a fact rests upon the fact that in it objects are represented by signs . The so - called logical " constants " are not represented by signs , but are themselves present in the proposition as in the fact . The proposition ...
... represented in mathematical logic by the words " fx is false for all values of x . " The negation of this would be the proposition " there is at least one x for which fx is true " which is represented by " ( x ) .fx . " If we had ...
... represents that the things are so combined with one another . This connexion of the elements of the picture is ... representing relation which makes it a picture , also belongs to the picture . 2.1514 The representing relation consists ...
... represent its form of representation ; it shows it forth . The picture represents its object from without ( its standpoint is its form of representation ) , there- fore the picture represents its object rightly or falsely . But the ...