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The Tractatus
The Tractatus… is it so intractable?
Carlos Muñoz-Suárez guides us on a trip down the linguistic rabbit hole.
“Most of the propositions and questions of philosophers arise from our failure to understand the logic of our language.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 4.03
On 13th March 1919, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote a letter telling Bertrand Russell that he had completed a book entitled Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung. The English version was later given the Latin title Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. At that time, and for almost a decade afterwards, Wittgenstein thought that the Tractatus contained a definitive solution to all the fundamental problems of philosophy!
Undoubtedly the Tractatus is a genuine challenge to philosophy, and a result of deep philosophical efforts.
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