Ludwig Wittgenstein · 1889-1951
The limits of my language are not the end of the conversation
A clear guide to the philosopher who changed his mind about almost everything, and showed why that matters.
- 1Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.The world is everything that is the case.
- 2Was der Fall ist, die Tatsache, ist das Bestehen von Sachverhalten.What is the case, the fact, is the existence of states of affairs.
- 3Das logische Bild der Tatsachen ist der Gedanke.The logical picture of the facts is the thought.
- 4Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz.The thought is the proposition with sense.
- 5Der Satz ist eine Wahrheitsfunktion der Elementarsätze.A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions.
- 6Die allgemeine Form der Wahrheitsfunktion ist: [p̄, ξ̄, N(ξ̄)].The general form of a truth-function is [p̄, ξ̄, N(ξ̄)].
- 7Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Tractatus 1-7 · German original, our translation
0 · Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wien 1889 · Cambridge 1951
Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote one short book claiming to have solved philosophy, gave away a fortune, taught in village schools and came back to take his own book apart. The early Wittgenstein of the Tractatus saw language as a picture of the world. The later Wittgenstein saw it as a toolbox and a set of language games, woven into everything we do.
He still matters because his questions are ours. What do words mean when we argue past each other? Can a rule tell you how to follow it? What do we know so firmly that we never think to doubt it? He did not leave a system. He left a method for untangling your thinking, and it works on ordinary problems as well as on philosophical ones.
Concepts
Eleven key ideas, from the picture theory to hinge propositions, each explained in plain language and shown in a short animation.
2Books
Every book, from the wartime notebooks to On Certainty, with what it says, how hard it is and where to start.
3Philosophers
The thinkers who taught him, argued with him and carried his ideas further, from Frege and Russell to Kripke and Cavell.
4In practice
How to use Wittgenstein on everyday problems: disagreements that are really about words, doubts that go nowhere, habits of thought.
5Life
Vienna, Cambridge, a Norwegian hut, village schools and an Irish coast: the life behind the remarks.
6About
An independent, non-commercial guide to Wittgenstein in English, Dutch and French. How we research, quote and translate, and how to cite us.
11 · Concepts
Key concepts
Eleven key ideas, from the picture theory to hinge propositions, each explained in plain language and shown in a short animation.
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our understanding by means of our language.
Die Philosophie ist ein Kampf gegen die Verhexung unseres Verstandes durch die Mittel unserer Sprache.
Philosophical Investigations §1093 · reading paths
Start here
New to Wittgenstein
Start with the idea everyone has heard of, see where it came from, then read the short book that ends in silence.
The later Wittgenstein
Follow the turn from pictures to practices: how meaning lives in use, and what that does to old puzzles.
Wittgenstein for daily life
Three ways to bring his method into ordinary arguments, doubts and confusions.