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Reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus (Cambridge University Press)

This book 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, the 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 'formal unity of language' and its role in the 'ladder structure' and explains how and why the book is not 'paradoxically self-defeating'. The third elucidates Wittgenstein's claim to have solved in essentials all philosophical problems, whose very formulation, he says, rests on the 'misunderstanding of the logic of our language'. 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 Open Questions in Russell’s Philosophy 2.2 Wittgenstein’s Reformation 2.3 The A Priori and the Method of the Tractatus 2.4 Wittgenstein’s Definite Descriptions and ‘Ontology’ 2.5 The Role of ‘Ontology’ 3. Ladder Lessons 1: Formal Unity, Symbolism, and No Self-defeat 3.1 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: The Problems of Philosophy Solved in Essentials 4.1 From Logic to Mathematics, and to Science 4.2 From Logic to Ethics 4.3 Logic and Mysticism 4.4 An Ethical Point After All https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/reading-wittgensteins-tractatus/69683B904CEB346FFC2759D0817591C5