Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides)

Published just over a century ago, Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length work to have been published during his lifetime and it continues to generate interest and scholarly debate. It is structured as a series of propositions on metaphysics, language, the nature of philosophy, and the distinction between what can be said and what can be shown. This volume brings together eleven new essays on the Tractatus covering a wide variety of topics, from the central Tractarian doctrines concerning representation, the structure of the world and the nature of logic, to less prominent issues including ethics, natural science, mathematics and the self. Individual essays advance specific exegetical debates in important ways, and taken as a whole they offer an excellent showcase of contemporary ideas on how to read the Tractatus and its relevance to contemporary thought. Cover Half-title Series information Title page Imprints page Contents List of Contributors Introduction English Translations of the Tractatus Chapter 1 Wittgenstein's Impatient Reply to Russell Chapter 2 Modality in Wittgenstein's Tractatus 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Russell's Troubles with Judgment and Truth 2.3 Propositions as Facts and the Truth-Problem 2.4 Possibility in the Tractatus 2.5 The Nature of Logic, Picturing, and Truth-Functions Chapter 3 Clarification and Analysis in the Tractatus 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Frege and Russell on Logical Notation 3.3 Two Senses in Which a Notation Can Be Said to Be Logical 3.4 Wittgenstein and Russell's Analysis 3.5 Symbol and Sign 3.6 Conclusion Chapter 4 The Fish Tale: The Unity of Language and the World in Light of TLP 4.014 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Form of Reality 4.3 The Form of a Musical Thought 4.4 What Lies at the Limit? 4.5 The Tale Chapter 5 That Which 'Is True' Must Already Contain the Verb: Wittgenstein's Rejection of Frege's Separation of Judgment from Content 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Frege's Separation of the Act from the Subject Matter of Judgment 5.3 Wittgenstein's Repudiation of Frege 5.4 Frege's Motivation Chapter 6 Solipsism and the Self 6.1 Wittgenstein's Early Solipsism 6.2 Solipsism from Logical Form 6.3 I and We 6.4 The Thinking Subject 6.5 The Attraction of Solipsism 6.6 The Later Additions 6.7 Solipsism in the Blue Book 6.8 Conclusion Chapter 7 The Tractatus and the First Person 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Beginnings of a First-Person Methodology 7.3 The Tractatus: The First-Person Method and the Problem of Psychologism 7.4 The First Person in the Tractatus: Solipsism and the Transcendental 7.5 Conclusion: The First-Person Method in the Tractatus Chapter 8 Arithmetic in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 8.1 Rejecting Logicism 8.2 Defining Natural Numbers and Multiplication 8.3 Philosophical Remarks 8.4 Looking Ahead Chapter 9 'Normal Connections' and the Law of Causality 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Hertz's Mechanics 9.3 Mechanics in the Tractatus 9.4 Conclusion Chapter 10 The Ethical Dimension of the Tractatus 10.1 Wittgenstein's Ethical Approach to the Limits of Language: Saying versus Showing 10.2 The View Sub Specie Aeternitatis 10.3 The Dimension of Wonder 10.4 The Significance of Silence 10.5 Wittgenstein's Mystical Approach to the World 10.6 Conclusion Chapter 11 ''Obviously Wrong'': The Tractatus on Will and World 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 References Index