Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 5,025 ratings · 200 reviews

This ebook is complete with linked Table of Content making navigation quicker and easier.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in the areas of logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.

Described by his mentor and colleague Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever kno...more This ebook is complete with linked Table of Content making navigation quicker and easier.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in the areas of logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.

Described by his mentor and colleague Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating," Wittgenstein is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Instrumental in inspiring two of the century's principal philosophical movements, logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy, he is considered one of the most important figures in analytic philosophy. According to an end of the century poll, professional philosophers rank both his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1953) among the top five most important books in twentieth-century philosophy, the latter standing out as "the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations." Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences, yet there are widely diverging interpretations of his thought.

Wittgenstein's thought is usually divided between his "early" period, exemplified by the Tractatus, the only philosophy book he published in his lifetime, and his "later" period, best articulated in the Investigations. The early Wittgenstein was concerned with the relationship between propositions and the world, and saw the aim of philosophy as an attempt to describe that relationship and correct misconceptions about language. The later Wittgenstein was stridently anti-systematic in his approach and emphasized philosophy as a kind of "therapy," and rejected many of the conclusions of the Tractatus. The later Wittgenstein provided a detailed account of the many possible uses of ordinary language, calling language a series of interchangeable "language games" in which the meanings of words are derived not from any inherent logical structure, but from their public usage (the so-called "meaning is use" argument); thus there can be no private language.(less)

ebook, 92 pages

Published October 8th 2010 by Wilder Publications (first published 1921)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 19, 2007 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: students of 20th Century philosophy

Shelves: philosophy

The ingenious work which, had it been true, would have provided a firm foundation for Positivism and provided justification for Philosophy's existence. It also would have pretty much been the last word on the nature of and philosophical limits of language. Instead Wittgenstein repudiated this view and put a nail in the coffin with P.I.

Elegant, minimal, logically crystalline. And mostly wrong.

like 10 likes · see review

May 05, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: linguistics-and-philosophy, transcendent-experiences

What can I say about Tractatus that hasn't been said a million times before? Crystalline... gnomic... dense... wrong. Well, I don't disagree with any of that, but it would be nice to have an image. I ask my subconscious if it can come up with anything, and while I'm in the shower it shows me the sequence from Terry Gilliam's 1988 movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where John Neville and Eric Idle build a hot air balloon made entirely from women's lingerie.

balloon

I am about to smack my subconscio...more

like 17 likes · see review

Aug 31, 2008 Jafar added it · review of another edition

I was just going to write, “Of what we cannot speak we must remain silent,” as my review. The book ends with this rather affected proposition, which actually would make a perfect book review for me as well. However, it’s an abomination to read (or pretend to have done so) a book of this stature (supposedly the most important philosophical book of the 20th century, no less) and not write a paragraph or two about it.

Wittgenstein wrote this book in the trenches and P.O.W. camps of World War I. At t...more I was just going to write, “Of what we cannot speak we must remain silent,” as my review. The book ends with this rather affected proposition, which actually would make a perfect book review for me as well. However, it’s an abomination to read (or pretend to have done so) a book of this stature (supposedly the most important philosophical book of the 20th century, no less) and not write a paragraph or two about it.

Wittgenstein wrote this book in the trenches and P.O.W. camps of World War I. At the beginning of the book he says: “Perhaps this book will be understood only by someone who has himself already had the thoughts that are expressed in it.” That was bad news for me right from the beginning. I don’t think I’ve ever had such lofty thoughts – not even close.

I would have given this book one star and declared it a heap of pompous and pretentious intellectual chicanery, but Wittgenstein is not to be slighted. You see, someone like Bertrand Russell, whose genius I recognize, was so impressed by this Wittgenstein dude that he gave up mathematical logic just because Wittgenstein told him so. This was after Russell had spent years on writing Principia Mathematica and trying to defend logic and set theory against the sort of paradoxes of which Russell’s paradox is the most famous one. Russell said that he couldn't quite understand what Wittgenstein was saying, but he felt in his bones that he must be right. That’s the kind of guy we’re talking about here. I’m therefore left with no choice but humbly admit that this book was way over my head. Respect, Mr. Wittgenstein!

The book has seven main propositions, each expanded by other propositions (except for the seventh proposition that ends the book). I think I understood quite a few of them, but I couldn’t tell you what the book as whole is trying to achieve or prove. Some proposition sound just so arcane that I didn’t even bother to try to understand them. Some propositions peaked my interest, like Proposition 3.333. I read it, and then it ended with: “That disposes of Russell’s paradox.” I was like: Say what? How did you dispose of Russell’s paradox in one paragraph? I stared at that proposition long and hard, but I didn’t get it. Some propositions looked just weird to me, like Proposition 6.1203 where he proposes an “intuitive method” to recognize an expression as a tautology.

I leave it to another genius like Kurt Gödel to say that he wasn’t very impressed with Wittgenstein. You see, when Gödel published his Incompleteness Theorem (some 10 years after Tractatus) both Wittgenstein and Russell tripped over it. Gödel was a Platonist who believed that mathematics describes an abstract reality, not the empirical reality of logical positivists like Russell and Wittgenstein. Gödel proved that there are true but unprovable propositions in mathematics. That comes very close to saying that mathematical truths are independent of any human activity. Wittgenstein didn’t accept Gödel’s results, and the Dark Prince of Mathematics duly told him to “be fruitful and multiply, but not in those words.” (Sorry, I just had to mix Woody Allen into all this.)
(less)

like 5 likes · see review

Jan 29, 2008 Gabriel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Gabriel by: Nick Smaligo

Wittgenstein says explicitly in the introduction of the book that no one has not already had these thoughts will be able to understand it, and should therefore not read it. No doubt this had a great affect on the size of The Tractatus' readership.

I, having not fully had many of these thoughts, was nonetheless absolutely THRILLED by the book--it's abstruseness notwithstanding--to the point where I would bring it up in conversation with absolute strangers, which, needless to say, affected the num...more

like 4 likes · see review

Mar 22, 2007 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Today there were 18 1p coins on the grave of Ludwig Wittgenstein at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. Originally .. some days ago .. there were four, spread about; and then five in a little pile to one side. This morning there were 15 neatly underlining his name. Now there are three more, still neatly lined up. Over the years numerous small objects have been placed on the grave including a lemon, a pork pie, a Mr Kipling cupcake and a Buddhist prayer wheel. It is all very...more

like · see review

Dec 31, 2012 The Chestertonian added it · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

The gentle reader is advised that it may be an act of hubris to even attempt reading this book, let alone to expect to understand it.

Due warning being given....

The author's preface says that the whole meaning of the book could be summed up by saying, "What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent." The author also made the claim that the book essentially solves all the problems of philosophy, and simultaneously shows how little has been don...more

like · see review

Oct 12, 2012 Thelbert Dewain Belgard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't find in the GR database the edition of this book that I own. The edition I indicated is as close as I could find. There are two ISBN's in the book itself, neither of which appears to bring up the edition I have! My edition is published by Routledge in the International Library of Psychology, Philosophy, & Scientific Method. It's translated by C.K. Ogden with a lengthy introduction by Bertrand Russell. Most important (from my perspective): the edition I own is a parallel German and En...more I can't find in the GR database the edition of this book that I own. The edition I indicated is as close as I could find. There are two ISBN's in the book itself, neither of which appears to bring up the edition I have! My edition is published by Routledge in the International Library of Psychology, Philosophy, & Scientific Method. It's translated by C.K. Ogden with a lengthy introduction by Bertrand Russell. Most important (from my perspective): the edition I own is a parallel German and English edition.

This book is heavy on symbolic logic, which is closely related to mathematics. (Wittgenstein says mathematics is a method of logic.) Not easy reading. Yet the essential points of the book can be summarized in seven propositions. In fact, Wittgenstein labels each proposition with a number from one to seven and all related remarks are then organized as decimals of that number. Proposition 1 is "The world is everything that is the case." 1.1 is "The world is the totality of facts, not of things." 1.11 is "The world is determined by the facts, and by these being all the facts." One hundred eighty-eight pages later (half of it German and half English and much of it in language of symbolic logic) we get to the final proposition. Proposition 7 is "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." And with that Wittgenstein falls silent.

This is in the end a mystical book. Much of the discussion of Proposition 6 (which is in symbolic form and not easily represented in a text review like this) has to do with transcending the world of time and space. In 6.44, he says, "The sense of the world must lie outside the world....In it there is no value--and if there were, it would be of no value.... It must lie outside the world. 6.42 Hence also there can be no ethical propositions. Propositions cannot express anything higher. 6.421 It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed. Ethics is transcendental. (Ethics and aesthetics are one.)"

Wow! When I first read that I thought, "That's exactly the way I see it!" And now--many years later--I still feel that way.

In 6.4311 we read: "If by eternity is understood not endless temporal duration but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present." Double wow.

He says in 6.44: "Not how the world is, is the mystical, but that it is. And in 6.522: "There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself; it is the mystical."

To say this is a great book is such an understatement that we need another word for it -- "ultra-understatement" or something like that.

I think Wittgenstein takes us in this book as far as philosophy can go. Tractatus is (as I see it) the end of the philosophical railway line -- and the beginning point for all the great spiritual traditions of the human species. Just my opinion.(less)

like · see review

Sep 08, 2012 Alexander rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psy-ops

In 1992, the SF writer William Gibson published Agrippa (a book of the dead) in floppy-disk form, a poem about his late father and the Memento-ish evanescence of memory, which encrypted itself after reading (i.e. you could only read it once). A rarer, analog edition was even printed with photosensitive chemicals that would degrade the ink upon exposure to light. (Two copies had to be sent to the Library of Congress, one to read so it could be catalogued, the other to be archived, forever unread....more

like 2 likes · see review

Jul 30, 2011 William West added it · review of another edition

First of all, it should be acknowledged that my entire philosophical background is in continental, rather than analytic, thought. I come to Wittgenstein with very little context. The only other philosophers Wittgenstein directly references in the Tractatus are Frege and Russell, neither of whom I have studied. My only preparation for reading this was a (very good) book by Anthony Rudd that compared Wittgenstein's work with that of Heidegger, finding unexpected similarities in their projects. Bot...more First of all, it should be acknowledged that my entire philosophical background is in continental, rather than analytic, thought. I come to Wittgenstein with very little context. The only other philosophers Wittgenstein directly references in the Tractatus are Frege and Russell, neither of whom I have studied. My only preparation for reading this was a (very good) book by Anthony Rudd that compared Wittgenstein's work with that of Heidegger, finding unexpected similarities in their projects. Both philosophers attempted to negate skepticism, from the context of very different philosophical traditions. This is the contextual background with which I approach the Tractatus. I am rather humble in presenting my responses to this book. When I write about philosophical works that I have a lot of background information on, I am confident in saying my responses at least represent a competent understanding of the text. That may not be the case here. Feel free to correct me.

From what I can gather, Wittgenstein starts his project in not such a different fashion as did Descartes in the Meditations On First Philosophy- by asking himself what he truly knows. What he knows is that he has an understanding of the world that he expresses to himself through language. He has a picture of the world that he can describe with words. The picture is an idea about reality that may or may not be correct but that is understood as having the potential to correctly capture reality, and that captive reality can then be conveyed with language. The picture, however, cannot depict itself. Knowledge cannot exceed itself. It cannot say what it is, because that would be knowledge picturing itself, that is stepping outside its own limit (itself) and seeing itself in a larger context.

We cannot think illogically because logic is the “shape” of thought. We can only logically acknowledge that we understand our own thoughts (our pictures of the world) and that we understand our conveyence of these pictures in language. To doubt one's understanding of the world, or to doubt that the world exists, (skepticism) is to attempt to depict one's own understanding of the world, it is to attempt to think beyond thought itself, which is non-sense. Thought can only depict its own understanding, not its non-understanding of what it has no access to at any rate.

Like Heidegger, Wittgenstein feels the Cartesian tradition is a misguided attempt to think beyond the world that the subject is already a part of. For Heidegger, the subject is already in the world that the Cartesian thinker doubts, giving shape to the world by embracing his own actions within it. For Wittgenstein, the subject has already acknowledged the world simply by having an impression of it that he can convey through language. The otherness of the world is a logical proposition that we can only acknowledge we understand.

I have always loved reading Heidegger but I had a troubling thought recently while reading Michel Lowy's interpretive work on Walter Benjamin's “On the Concept of History,” entitled Fire Alarm. If Heidegger's being-in-the-world cannot doubt the light of being that shines upon him, how was the clearing through which the sun reaches him created and shaped? Was the clearing of cultural being not cut by what Benjamin referred to as the tyranical victors of history? Was the clearing that shapes being's experience not built through the toil of slaves? Is it, then, that Heidegger's being-in-the-world cannot doubt the right-ness of the dominator in rejoicing in the sun of life? For he frolics in the architecture of the tyrant, which only poses as the “nature” of the forest.

Similarly, in Wittgensteinian language, if the other is a proposition that consciousness cannot deny it understands, can consciousness doubt its own intentions for the other. Does it not understand the other perfectly, and thereby know that it understands what is “best” for the other?

Is it possible that Heidegger and Wittgenstein managed to negate skepticism only to deepen for philosophy the primary ethical criticism of the Cartesian tradition: that if consciousness properly understands the Other it does not have to question its own (exploitative) designs on the otherness of the world?(less)

like · see review

Jul 30, 2010 Jon Stout rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: poets and evangelists

Recommended to Jon by: Ambi Mani

Shelves: philosophy

If I may use a crude simile for illustration, Wittgenstein says that knowledge, or language, or science, is like a pile of cordwood. Each piece of wood is a proposition that mirrors or pictures a fact in the world. The pieces of wood are stacked on top of each other according to the logical rules for concatenating propositions, including implication (for causation) and universal quantifiers (for scientific principles). The pile of wood rests on a bottom layer of “elementary propositions,” of whi...more If I may use a crude simile for illustration, Wittgenstein says that knowledge, or language, or science, is like a pile of cordwood. Each piece of wood is a proposition that mirrors or pictures a fact in the world. The pieces of wood are stacked on top of each other according to the logical rules for concatenating propositions, including implication (for causation) and universal quantifiers (for scientific principles). The pile of wood rests on a bottom layer of “elementary propositions,” of which the rest are compounded. The nature of elementary propositions is left unspecified, except that they are empirical. They could pertain to the simplest sensations (as in Bertrand Russell’s logical atomism), or they could pertain to something appropriate to the subject matter (maybe atoms, molecules, cells, etc.).

All language can say is what is in that woodpile. Anything outside of the woodpile is nonsense. Any part of that woodpile is logically based on the elementary propositions at its base. There are limits to how high one can build the woodpile. That’s all we can know, stacked up in a neat pile of wood.

The best known consequence of this philosophical system is that some areas of discourse are nonsense, including philosophy, religion, morality, aesthetics, etc. The traditional topics of philosophy are out of bounds. We can not talk about the world as a whole, the relation of knowledge to the world, the nature of the self and so forth, because they are not part of our woodpile and we cannot get outside of our woodpile to do so.

An elegant and beautiful system, and theory of language. I will refrain from whining because I can’t, within this system, do any philosophy, As Wittgenstein concludes, “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” I admire the beauty and integrity with which Wittgenstein articulates his vision, so that it becomes like a Zen koan.

One quibble before I shut up. The facts in the world that propositions are supposed to mirror, seem to me to be metaphysical projections. They strangely resemble propositions, yet they are supposed to be in the world. If I look out my window, I see trees and houses, but I don’t see facts. Wittgenstein says many things about facts, enough to make me unsure if I am making a valid point. He says, for example, that they are the logical structure which propositions and the world have in common. He also says that one cannot speak of this logical structure, because to do so, one would have to be outside the woodpile. So I will stew in silence.

As a footnote, all of the above is the early Wittgenstein of the Tractatus, as distinct from the later Wittgenstein of the Philosophical Investigations.
(less)

like 3 likes · see review

Mar 01, 2010 Joshua Stein rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, metaphysics

Obviously, there's a reason why Tractatus is considered one of the seminal works of analytic philosophy. It's the product of one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century and offers a great deal of insight into the cogs of the analytic thought process, as far as what is maximized and what is minimized or ignored altogether.

There are a few problems I have with the text, though.

Wittgenstein tends to discount the value of a number of areas of philosophy that have obvious value, not just in th...more

like · see review

Jun 29, 2012 Graeme rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

David Markson made some funny aphorisms regarding Harold Bloom's claim to The New York Times that he could read 500 pages in an hour (highly dubious):

"Writer's arse.

Spectacular exhibition! Right this way ladies and gentlemen! See Professor Bloom read the 1961 corrected and reset Random House edition of James Joyce's Ulysses in one hour and thirty-three minutes. Not one page stinted. Unforgettable!

... What's this? Can't spare an hour and a half? Wait, wait. Our matinee special, today only! Watch...more

like · see review

Feb 25, 2011 Frankie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: logic

Tractatus gave me a dull, achy throbbing behind my eyes. I have to admit most of it is beyond me. I made attempts to research the sudden downpour of terms, but even wikipedia was no help. I flashed back to my struggles with Baudrillard and his nonsense. He does appear to be pretty pompous when he makes adjustments to Russell's and Frege's work. Thankfully, by the fourth of seven points, I began to grasp a little of his thinking, though I may never understand what's going on with those formulas.

T...more

like 1 like · see review

Nov 27, 2007 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

Patience is necessary if you're not within philosophy academia, like myself. It's not light reading but, conversely, Wittgenstein is not heavy material. In fact, it's the strict, disciplined simplicity of his ideas that adds some difficulty. The book ends on a fantastic note, either an affirmation or a haymaker to the field of philosophy. I'm still unsure which.

like 3 likes · see review

Dec 22, 2010 Apio rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mathematics, philosophy-and-theory

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In the preface of this book, Wittgenstein tells us that "what can be said at all can be said clearly". I took him at his word, and assumed that he was trying to be utterly clear. I think he was mostly successful, though his frequent use of the symbols of mathematical logic to express himself (and what I think was a too literal translation) made it difficult for me. Toward the end of the book Wittgenstein also tells us that those who have read through the book and understood it will realize that...more In the preface of this book, Wittgenstein tells us that "what can be said at all can be said clearly". I took him at his word, and assumed that he was trying to be utterly clear. I think he was mostly successful, though his frequent use of the symbols of mathematical logic to express himself (and what I think was a too literal translation) made it difficult for me. Toward the end of the book Wittgenstein also tells us that those who have read through the book and understood it will realize that all of its propositions are "senseless". I also take him at his word on that... Therefore, what I take from this book is my own interpretations of certain parts which I have found useful or insightful:
1)"What can be said at all can be said clearly" "Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly."
2)"If a sign is not necessary then it is meaningless." Applied to speech and writing, this is a good guideline for self-editing.
3)"Most propositions and questions that have been written about philosophical matters, are not false, but senseless... Most questions and propositions of philosophers result from the fact that we do not understand the logic of our language." Philosophy is bullshit.
4)"What can be shown cannot be said." What can be shown is what is there. What can be said can only be an abstraction from what is there. That is the nature of language.
5)"All propositions of logic say the same thing. That is, nothing." (Why this book is "senseless"?)
6)"the world is my world" and "I am my world" This is reminiscent of the way in which Stirner's "creative nothing" is also "the Unique" constantly creating and consuming itself and its world...
7)Natural laws "treat only the network", referring to the network of propositions through which one describes the world, and "not the world this network describes". In other words, these "laws" are not in the world, but in the way we think about the world. Nothing in the world is determined, but our interaction with the world requires that we have ways of interacting with it that currently take the form of "natural laws". "At the basis of the whole modern view of the world lies the illusion that the so-called laws of nature are the explanations of natural phenomena." "A necessity for one thing to happen because another has happened does not exist".
There are other interesting bits in there, but this is enough to get the point...
(less)

like · see review

Jan 06, 2012 jean lice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: austrian

eigentlich habe ich mir auf drei doppelt beschriebenen, einzeiligen Notizblättern Notizen und Gedanken zu einzelnen Punkte gemacht, die ich für besonders wichtig halte, mit denen ich nicht d'accord bin, o.ä. . diese persönlichen Ergebnisse wollte ich hier als review posten, um sie für mich zu konservieren und meinen derzeitig geistigen Standpunkt festzuhalten, stattdessen werde ich die Zettel behalten und hier eine Empfehlung für das Buch abgeben.
wenn es eine philosophische Abhandlung, die sich...more

like · see review

Jan 16, 2009 Mari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, wittgenstein

The ascii text is available from the Gutenberg Library here: Tractatus Logico Philosphicus

I wish I could remember who described this to me as a "Logical Poem" - but that's still how it reads to me. Though aspects of this "Early Wittgenstein" material are left wanting in light of his later work, it's still a remarkably compelling read.

UPDATE: I've gone through the text again, doing what I always do, looking for a few lines or a section that is representative of the whole. In this case, I was look...more

like · see review

Apr 26, 2013 David Ramirer rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nobody!

Shelves: dixibooks, early-readings

eines dieser maßlos überschätzten werke, das in seinem völlig unzugänglichen (selbst vom eigentlich-bin-ich-ja-architekt-autor als spartanischem würfel gestalteten) elfenbeinturm vielleicht von herrn L.W. selbst verstanden worden ist, wobei ich selbst das stark anzweifle. wenn ein buch (vor allem ein philosophisches!) schon auf den ersten seiten mit mathematischen formeln daherkommt und es nicht schafft, im rahmen der sprache zu bleiben (von der es ja letztendlich daherschwadroniert), ist irgend...more

like · see review

Mar 18, 2013 Arron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

2.1 We make to ourselves pictures of facts.

2.12 The picture is a model of reality

4.003 Most propositions and questions, that have been written about philosophical matters, are not false, but senseless. We cannot, therefore, answer questions of this kind at all, but only state their senselessness. Most questions and propositions of the philosophers result from the fact that we do not understand the logic of our language.

5.6 The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

6.211 In life it is...more

like · see review

Jul 30, 2011 Barce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a profound book that has rendered me silent and so clear about the very foundations of the world around me.

When I first read it, I really didn't have a philosophical experience with it. It was just another thing to read in college.

Then I had a certain clarity come over me when I talked with W.E. Abraham, the author of "The Mind Of Africa." He gave me an approach for reading the Tractatus. Take a topic that interests you, and then find those passages just dealing with that topic. Connect...more

like · see review

Oct 18, 2010 La pointe de la sauce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The seminal work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and it reads like poetry. There is something inherently wrong with Tractatus, it seems logically sound when you take its elements or logical propositions one at at time, however when you work it all into one unified body there are many conflicts. Wittgenstein bothers me because there is something snotty about how he presents his work, its like he's trying to pick a fight and has set the playing field exactly how he wants it.

Anyway, it sounded a bit too pr...more

like · see review

Oct 22, 2012 Harry Doble rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

I feel it necessary to refrain from offering much of an opinion on Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. I found the way it was written fascinating, but it didn't capture my attention for too long. Reading through Bertrand Russell's introduction and online interpretations rejuvenated my interest in the text and were crucial to my understanding of it. It seems Wittgenstein himself later found many of the ideas he proposed here contentious, and thou...more

like · see review

Mar 23, 2011 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am in no way a logician, so the formally technical passages of this work were lost on me, but Wittgenstein's more classical philosophical musings (even though he later refuted many of them) were consistent with the worldview in which I most often operate. I read in them many precursors to postmodern literary theory, with a healthy dose of solipsism. It is certainly an intellectually engaging work, even for those of us for whom the many equations are all but unintelligible, and even in such cas...more

like · see review

Sep 02, 2011 Adam Floridia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmmm...how to rate a book you didn't understand at all--that is the question. Maybe like this: (?)

1. Here the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is everything that is the case.

1.1 It is the case because it is the subject of this review.

1.11 This review is determined by facts. In this case, all the facts that I came up with while reading the case.

1.12. The subject cannot include facts that are not the case because the totality of existent facts determines what is the case, and whatever is not the ca...more

like 3 likes · see review

Apr 05, 2013 S.J. Pettersson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: worn-spines

Since I am a musician and composer in the classical arena I often come across great classical pianists that in passing mentions that they have heard that Wittgenstein had a brother who was a philosopher. The first brother, the famous one (in the realm of music), lost his right arm in WW I and in order for him to be able to still perform as the famous classical concert pianist he was, Maurice Ravel wrote his famous "Concerto for the Left Hand" for him. The piece was actually premiered by Ravel hi...more

like · see review

Sep 04, 2011 David Spencer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best

This is one of those books that ripped open my brain, tore out the stuffing, and replaced it with the machinery of a better mind, then told my brain to adapt and patch. By the time I got to the end, I felt like my thoughts were running along a razor's edge that was getting thinner and sharper, and that slipping was not only not an option, it was impossible. And then he hits you with the final set of propositions. It was a mystical experience done through some precise-as-fuck logic. Wittgenstein...more

like · see review

Mar 24, 2013 Pavel added it · review of another edition

Frustrating. Except for some fragmental notions I could not understand what is he talking about. I thought I could understand it better if I had some knowledge of modern logic, but then I learned Russell did not understand it too which gives me little chance I could ever catch up with him. And the final blow - later Wittgenstein himself thought he was wrong. Usually I try to understand even wrong thoughts as it can be extremely fruitful, but this time, given the arbitrary unintelligibility of th...more

like · see review

Mar 12, 2008 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had a hard time thinking of how to rate this book. It was, literally, amazing. It also made me miserable.

Do I recognize its genius? Yes, to the extent possible. Do I like it? Only in the abstract.

like 2 likes · see review

Oct 05, 2012 Eryc Tri Juni S rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, logic-philosophy

"There is no such truth outside of mathematics"
-Ludwig Wittgenstein-

There is noway of finding a single absolute truth, an irrefutable argument which might help answer the question of mankind. Philosophy therefore is dead. Because, "Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent". so, can we know the truth ?

well, i don't believe if someone will find the absolute truth by calculation. Because, i don't believe in something that happen by the chance. How come somebody can handle the absolute...more

like · see review

Jun 18, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mathematics is a logical method derived from the repeated application of operations. The number 2, for instance, is the exponent given to an operation that is applied twice. Thus, the propositions of mathematics do not say anything about the world, but only reflect the method in which propositions are constructed.

The laws of science are not logical laws, nor are they empirical observations. Rather, they constitute an interpretive method, by means of which we can more accurately describe reality....more

like 2 likes · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
bilingual edition?	5	51	Mar 29, 2013 06:31pm

combine
Other Editions (99)

More editions...

Genres

Philosophy

550 users

Non Fiction

52 users

Humanities > Language

16 users

Philosophy > Theory

10 users

European Literature > German Literature

9 users

Philosophy > Metaphysics

9 users

Science

7 users

Classics

7 users

Science > Mathematics

6 users

Reference

5 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

Described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating", he helped inspire t...more

More about Ludwig Wittgenstein...

Books by Ludwig Wittgenstein

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Tractatus Logico-...

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Tractatus Logico-Philo...

“Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits.” — 41 people liked it

“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” — 38 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
avg rating	preview: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Goodreads rating: 4.06 (5025 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9613309-tractatus-logico-philosophicus?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1288506804l/9613309.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9613309-tractatus-logico-philosophicus?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein[/url]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website