Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (originally titled, in German, Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung), by LudwigWittgenstein. ISBN 0415254086

From the preface:

: The book deals with the problems of philosophy, and shows, I believe, that the reason why these problems are posed is that the logic of our language is misunderstood. The whole sense of the book might be summed up in the following words: what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.
: ...
: On the other hand the truth of the thoughts that are here communicated seem to me unassailable and definitive. I therefore believe myself to have found, on all essential points, the final solution of the problems. And if I am not mistaken in this belief, then the second thing in which the value of this work consists is that it shows how little is achieved when these problems are solved.

Comparison with PhilosophicalInvestigations?/LateWittgenstein

After Wittgenstein wrote this he gave up philosophy to become, amongst other things, a junior school teacher. Later, he decided that in fact the truth of these thoughts was assailable. And so he began again, abandoning the formal approach of the Tractatus for the natural language approach of the PhilosophicalInvestigations? et. seq. Strangely (or is it?), the PhilosophicalInvestigations?, Philosophical Grammar, Blue Book etc. are much less frequently quoted than the Tractatus.

Actually, with time his later work is only growing in influence, while his earlier work is treated more as a sign of its times. -- BretPettichord

If this "later" Wittgenstein is correct, then most of modern linguistics is going to need reworking.

Why Wittgenstein is important. The entire Western tendency that began with Plato is summed up in this book. And the next book he wrote, demolishes it. In a nutshell, "thinking" is not something that is "done in the head" using "concepts". This is only a crude metaphor for what we do, & most of subsequent philosophy has been wasted in talking about the metaphor (& misunderstandings of the metaphor) instead of what it is we do that the metaphor was intended to clarify. His final position comes very close to Zen Buddhism without ever quite losing touch with a very Western kind of anxiety & social concern. If you read both these books & understand them, you will become a little wiser. But you won't be able to talk about it with anyone else who hasn't.

Note that Germans don't mind speaking German when talking about something important, English-speakers prefer to use Latin. ;0) Contrast Freud's Es, Ich, Über-Ich with "English" id, ego, and super-ego - or even television with Fernseher.

Maybe they just want a real language instead of an engineered bridge language like English?

English online editions of the Tractatus are available from several places:

CategoryBook