Abstract
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP) turns hundred years of its publication in the year 2021. The book has received several interpretations during this period of hundred years. However, in the last three decades, the interpretations of TLP have taken a very tenacious position with regard to the debates among scholars concerning whether there is any metaphysical significance in the text. The debates primarily offshoot in the rise of anti-metaphysical or often known as resolute reading that challenges the standard or metaphysical reading. The present paper, however, goes beyond this debate between the resolute and standard reading of TLP. The paper aims at addressing various types of metaphysical reading(s) that has not been perhaps the centre of discussion because the resolute reading takes on only standard reading. Thus, the present paper attempts to show the variety of metaphysical interpretations of the text in some of the recent literatures.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Notes
See, Hintikka and Hintikka, Investigating Wittgenstein, Basil Blackwell, UK, 1986, p.31.
See, I.M. Copi and Robert W. Beard, ed. Essays on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966.
See TLP, aphorism 4.12 and 4.121.
See Ibid, aphorism 6.421, also see “A Lecture on Ethics”, The Philosophical Review, Vol.74, No.1, (Jan., 1965), pp.3–12.
The debate between standard and resolute reading of TLP is also discussed in the following paper; Tarai, Ashoka Kumar, (2021), Anti-Metaphysical readings of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Problemos, Vol.99.
See John W. Cook, Wittgenstein’s Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, 1994, p.xvii.
Ibid, p.8.
See Jaakko Hintikka, “On Wittgenstein’s Solipsism” in Essays on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, eds. I.M. Copi and Robert W. Beard, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966, pp.157–161.
See Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value, eds. G.H. von Wright and Heikki Nyman, trans. Peter Winch, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1980, for the primacy of the moral point of view.
References
Copi, I.M. Robert, W.B. (1966). (eds.), Essays on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, Routledge and Kegan Paul
Cavell, S., Crary, A., & Read, R. (2000). The new Wittgenstein.
Anscombe, G.E.M. (1959). An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, Harper & Row Publishers
Carruthers, P. (1990). The metaphysics of the tractatus. Cambridge University Press.
Chandra, Suresh, (2002) Wittgenstein: New Perspectives, Indian Council of Philosophical Research
Conant, J. (2002). Elucidation and nonsense in Frege and early Wittgenstein. In The New Wittgenstein (pp. 184-227). Routledge.
Cook, J. W. (1994). Wittgenstein’s metaphysics. Cambridge University Press.
Diamond, C. (1988). Throwing away the ladder. Philosophy, 63(243), 5–27.
Diamond, C. (1995). The realistic spirit: Wittgenstein, philosophy and the mind. MIT Press.
Glock, H.J. (1996), A Wittgenstein dictionary, Wiley Blackwell
Griffin, J. (1997). Wittgenstein’s logical atomism. Thoemmes Press.
Hacker, P. M. S. (1972). Insight and Illusion: Wittgenstein on philosophy and the metaphysics of experience. Oxford University Press.
Hilmy, S. (1987). The later Wittgenstein: The emergence of a new philosophical method. Basil Blackwell.
Hintikka and Hintikka. (1986). Investigating Wittgenstein. Basil Blackwell.
Kumar Tarai, A. (2020). The (In) visibility of value: A wittgensteinian perspective. Obnovljeni Život: Časopis Za Filozofiju i Religijske Znanosti, 75(4), 493–505.
McGinn, M. (1999). Between metaphysics and nonsense: elucidation in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. The Philosophical Quarterly, 49(197), 491–513.
McGuinness, B. (2002). Approaches to Wittgenstein: Collected papers. Routledge.
Monk, R. (1990). Ludwig Wittgenstein: The duty of genius. Jonathan Cape.
Pears, D. (1987). False prison: A study of the development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy, Vol.1, Clarendon Press
Pradhan, R.C., (2002), The Great Mirror: An Essay on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, Kalki Prakash
Russell, B. (1972). The philosophy of logical atomism, Routledge
Tarai, A. K. (2021). Anti-metaphysical readings of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Problemos, 99, 131–147.
Tejedor, C. (2015). The early Wittgenstein on metaphysics, natural science, language and value. Routledge.
Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Culture and Value. In G. Henrik (Ed.), von Wright. Translated by Peter Winch: Basil Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. (1922/1974). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. In D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness, Intro. by Bertrand Russell, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Wittgenstein, L. (1929/1965) A Lecture on Ethics, The Philosophical Review, (74(1), pp. 3–12)
Wittgenstein, L. (1953/1986). Philosophical Investigations, trans., In G. E. M. Anscombe, MacMillan Company
Funding
No funding was received for this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Tarai, A.K. Metaphysical Reading(s) of TLP. J. Indian Counc. Philos. Res. 40, 1–14 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-023-00296-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-023-00296-y