Reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus / Mauro Luiz Engelmann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Engelmann, Mauro Luiz, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, 2632-7112

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951. Tractatus logico-philosophicus.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (73 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

This Element presents a concise and accessible view of the central arguments of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Starting from the difficulties found in historical and current debates, drawing on the background of Russell's philosophy, and grounded in the ladder structure expressed in the numbering system of the book, this Element presents the central arguments of the Tractatus in three lines of thought. The first concerns the role of the so-called 'ontology' and its relationship to the method of the Tractatus and its logical symbolism, which displays the formal essence of language and world. The second deals with the symbolic unity of language and its role in the 'ladder structure' and explains how and why the book is not self-defeating. The third elucidates Wittgenstein's claim to have solved in essentials all philosophical problems, whose very formulation, he says, rests on misunderstandings.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Contents

1 Readings of the Tractatus and How to Read It

1.1 A Variety of Readings

1.2 Resoluteness

1.3 "Understanding the Author": Not a Resolute Method of Deception

1.4 Discontents

1.5 Benchmarks for a Reading and "Overlapping Consensus"

2 Method, Analysis, and Ontology

2.1 Background

2.2 Open Questions in Russell's Philosophy

2.3 Wittgenstein's Reformation

2.4 The A Priori and the Method of the Tractatus

2.5 Wittgenstein's Definite Descriptions and 'Ontology'

2.6 The Role of 'Ontology'

3 Ladder Lessons 1: Formal Unity, Symbolism, and No Self-Defeat

3.1 Understanding the Author and Climbing 'Equivalents'

3.2 Symbolism: The Formal Unity of Language

3.3 Prototype

3.4 The Unity of the Prototype and Complex Forms

3.5 The Showing Symbolism Dissolves the Appearance of Self-Defeat

4 Ladder Lessons 2: Problems of Philosophy Solved in Essentials

4.1 Bipolarity as a Logical Distinction

4.2 From Logic to Mathematics, and to Science

4.3 From Logic to Ethics

4.4 Logic and Mysticism

4.5 An Ethical Point After All

References

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 Jun 2021).

ISBN:

1-108-88721-X

1-108-89550-6

1-108-88789-9

OCLC:

1259368862