Questions tagged [wittgenstein]
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher, professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge (1939-1947). He worked in foundations of mathematics and on mathematical logic, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He played a central, if controversial, role in 20th-century analytic philosophy.
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Definition of "language" in private language arguments
What is a sensible definition of the term language to use when interpreting private language arguments in general (if possible), or Wittgenstein in particular?
Conversely, is rejecting the idea of ...
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Why is private language an incoherent idea?
The fact that I have no problem imagining a private language probably implies that I don't understand the notion of private language. My understanding is private language is a language understandable ...
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The preface of Wittgenstein's Tractatus
The Preface to the Tractatus begins:
This book will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves
already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it—or similar
thoughts
The poet ...
user6917
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What is the objective of philosophy according to the late Wittgenstein?
Wittgenstein early metaphilosophy in the TLP basically gives philosophy the role of "riddler solver", that is, a discipline whose main task is to study language in order to clarify the meaning of ...
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What are the objections to the picture theory of language?
The title says it all. I am just interested to explore the objections briefly. I'll really appreciate if all is explained in layman's term and suggestion to helpful material is also welcome.
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Is "propositions of logic are tautologies" (Wittgenstein) literal or mystical?
At 6.1 in the Tractatus, Wittgenstein says, "The propositions of logic are tautologies."
When he says this, is he referring to the fact that the axioms of propositional logic as presented, for ...
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Wittgenstein and Husserl
If Wittgenstein's Tractatus is right that:
He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly. (TLP 6.54).
and
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. (TLP 7).
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user6917
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C. D. Broad’s taxonomy of philosophical styles and theories?
I came across a reference to,
C. D. Broad’s taxonomy of philosophical styles and theories, given in
Broad’s series of undergraduate lectures, "Elements of Philosophy"
in Ray Monk's biography, ...
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What does disposition mean in dispositional theory of meaning?
In discussion about rule-following and sceptical paradox, there is one solution called dispositional theory of meaning, which says, that if we are disposed to use a symbol + to denote addition, then ...
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What do Montaigne, Paine, and Wittgenstein have in common?
What do philosophers Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Thomas Paine
(1736-1809), and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) have in common?
I found this question scribbled in the margin of a library copy ...
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Do mainstream philosophers believe that Wittgenstein "solved" philosophy?
After finishing his first work, Wittgenstein left philosophy, thinking that he "solved" all philosophical problems. He is now considered one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, if ...
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Is philosophy meaningless?
*By meaningless I mean undefined, and by meaning I mean definition.
As a student of philosophy, I, like the general public, thought that my difficulty in understanding the concepts of philosophy is ...
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Was Wittgenstein anticipating Gödel?
The Tractatus 6.123:
6.123 Clearly the laws of logic cannot in their turn be subject to laws of logic. (There is not, as Russell thought, a special law of contradiction for each 'type'; one law is ...
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Is anything known about the content of Sraffa's critique of Wittgenstein's Philosophy?
in the preface to Wittgensteins Philosophical Investigations he says:
For since beginning to occupy myself with philosophy sixteen years ago I have been forced to recognise grave mistakes in what I ...
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How does Russell's argument for identity refute that of Wittgenstein's?
In My Philosophical Development Russell wrote,
I come next to what Wittgenstein had to say about identity, which has an importance that may not be obvious at once. To explain this theory, I must ...
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What is the difference between the illogical and the nonsensical?
In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein mentions the following:
"3.03 Thought can never be of anything illogical, since, if it were, we should have to think illogically."
"3.032 It is as impossible to ...
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How do modern metaphysicians respond to Kant and Wittgenstein?
As far as I've understood, Kant argued that metaphysical knowledge is impossible because the human mind is not capable enough to acquire it. Wittgenstein, on the other hand, claimed that metaphysical ...
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A quote from Wittgenstein
What does Wittgenstein mean by this sentence:
The less somebody knows and understand himself the less great he is, however great may be his talent. For this reason our scientists are not great. (...
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In Wittgenstein, is all the facts being *all* the facts a fact itself?
Wittgenstein writes in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (p.25 in this version):
1. The world is everything that is the case.
1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
1.11 The ...
user2953
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Is the Tractatus considered to have had any permanent influence on philosophy, given that Wittgenstein himself later repudiated it?
I was reading a text book that stated that Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is rarely criticized in a serious way, since Wittgenstein himself rejected its ideas in his later phase, as ...
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What is the difference between Jerry Fodor's LOT and Wittgenstein's Picture Theory of Meaning?
From Wikipedia:
"[The] the language of thought hypothesis (LOTH) put forward by American philosopher Jerry Fodor describes thoughts as represented in a "language" (sometimes known as mentalese) that ...
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Can the correspondance theory of truth take into account observer effects?
Kant wrote in the Metaphysics of Natural Science
If we ·keep mathematics out of the picture and· think of
the doctrine of the soul merely as a systematic art of analysis
or as an experimental ...
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Are Wittgenstein's propositions analytic or synthetic?
Wittgenstein provides a logical analysis of propositions in the Tractatus. Does he there admit the Kantian distinctions between analytic/synthetic and a priori/a posteriori divisions; or does his ...
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What can we speak of
Wittgenstein's Tractatus starts with the assumption that the world is "the totality of... facts".
But famously concludes that what we cannot speak of "one must be silent" about.
It seems pretty ...
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What is the difference between Aristotle's theory of categories and Russell's theory of types?
A partial answer might come through an introduction. Well, we know that Russell's efforts to understand the contradictory appearance of the class of all classes not members of themselves (a notion ...
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What if we could only "surmount" propositions with lower order properties as their object
This link nicely explains the difference between lower order and higher order properties
First-order properties and relations are those that can only be instantiated by individuals. For example, ...
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What is the role of philosophy according to the Tractatus
IIRC it's to show what questions are pseudo questions.
But he also says this:
Philosophy limits the disputable sphere of natural science.
Is this in reference to the demarcation of science and ...
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Why isn't "Philosophical Investigations'" style the norm?
As some of you may know (I tend to discuss and talk quite a bit with you fine folk on this topic), I attend a local gathering of people who wish to discuss (somewhat) simple topics of philosphy. It's ...
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What are the arguments in favor of scepticism today?
It seems that today the common opinion is that Wittgenstein "killed" philosophical skepticism with his Philosophical Investigations (PI) and his private language argument.
After PI, the number of ...
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Did Wittgenstein say something about intuition for logic?
When one creates some logical content, like in programming, only naives think that this is a rational way of thinking. In fact, this is based on patterns and intuition.
Did Wittgenstein say anything ...
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Are negated statements always false in Wittgenstein's "logically perfect language"?
According to the language Wittgenstein builds in the Tractatus, you start with the set of atomic facts, pick some subset of them, negate all of the members of the subset (using nand), and then add the ...
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Why is knowing not a mental state?
"There is a tendency to think of knowledge as a mental state. Now I am supposed to know my own mental states. If I say I have a certain mental state and do not have it, then I have told a lie. But I ...
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Viciously circular arguments against philosophy
Science seeks to explain natural events with natural causes. The
Turing hypothesis does this. Beyond the bounds of science, there is no
objective argument for anything really, just philosophical ...
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Why isn't Cantor's diagonal argument just a paradox?
Cantor's diagonal argument concludes the cardinality of the power set of a countably infinite set is greater than that of the countably infinite set.
In other words, the infiniteness of real numbers ...
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Can anyone correct my understanding of "a priori conception"
Not only in judgements, however, but even in conceptions, is an a
priori origin manifest. For example, if we take away by degrees from
our conceptions of a body all that can be referred to mere ...
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How would Descartes respond to Wittgenstein's objection to radical doubt?
From what I understand, Descartes wrote refutations to criticisms made of his Meditations. I'm just interested in what he would say to Wittgenstein, who I think has the most compelling critique of ...
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If "the limits of my language are the limits of my world", then how can it be that "what can be shown, cannot be said"?
I'm trying to understand Wittgenstein, but two of his most oft quoted statements seem to me to be implying contradicting things. I understand that later Wittgenstein did refute a lot of his earlier ...
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Tractatus 3.333 and Russell's paradox
Can anyone explain to a non-logician how Tractatus 3.333 refutes (or fails to refute) Russell's Paradox? Please explain his use of symbols!
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According to Wittgenstein, what is the relationship between "concept" and "definition"? What are the differences between the two?
I'm having trouble understanding the difference. I felt that concept can be reduced to definitions.
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Wittgenstein: Why is bipolarity necessary?
I do get that for a certain proposition there may be the possibility of it being either true or false, but why must this possibility exist for every proposition?
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Defenses of Descartes's rationality in regards to "cogito" fallacy?
What philosophers and in what writings, if any, have attempted to explain or defend Descartes's rationalism in respect to the "cogito ergo sum" fallacy pointed out by philosophers like Russell, and ...
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Why should one read the Tracatus? [closed]
In the introduction to the Tractatus, Russell writes:
In order to understand Mr Wittgenstein’s book, it is necessary to realize
what is the problem with which he is concerned. In the part of his
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Does Wittgensteins own solution to Russells Paradox actually work?
In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein attempts a solution of Russells paradox
3.333 A function cannot be its own argument, because the functional sign already contains the prototype of its own argument and ...
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Why could Wittgenstein say that men had an idea for the law of least action?
Wittgenstein says in the Tractatus:
6.3211 Men had indeed an idea that there must be a 'law of least action', before they knew exactly how it ran. (Here, as always, what is certain a priori proves ...
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Why does Wittgenstein say that the world is made of facts, and not things?
Proposition 1.1 of the Tractatus says:
The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
Does this mean that he regards the world being that of propositions whose truth can be determined - that ...
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Why does the world of the happy man differ from the world of the unhappy man?
In the Tractatus, what does Wittgenstein mean by:
6.43 If good or bad willing changes the world, it can only change the limits of the world, not the facts; not the things that can be expressed in ...
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One or two Wittgensteins?
It is common opinion that Wittgenstein has two main different periods which are best exemplified by the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the Philosophical Investigations and that these periods are ...
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For Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations, is all use of language in a language game?
If so, doesn't this characterize language as being within a language game, thus undermining Wittgenstein's anti-essentialism?
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What did Wittgenstein mean by saying that the belief in the causal nexus is a superstition?
In the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittenstein says:
5.1361
The events of the future cannot be inferred from those of the present.
Superstition is the belief in the causal nexus.
I'm ...
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What is the logic in the Tractatus-Logico Philosophicus in modern terms?
In the SEP entry on Wittgenstein, the description of the logic utilised in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to describe his logical atomism appears to be at least formally classical propositional ...