The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and
cited as TLP) is a book-length philosophical work by the Austrian
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
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. He is consi ...
which deals with the relationship between language and reality and aims to define the limits of science. Wittgenstein wrote the notes for the ''Tractatus'' while he was a soldier during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and completed it during a military leave in the summer of 1918. It was originally published in German in 1921 as ''Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung'' (Logical-Philosophical Treatise). In 1922 it was published together with an English translation and a Latin title, which was suggested by
G. E. Moore as homage to
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
's ''
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Written by the Dutch philosopher Benedictus Spinoza, the ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'' (''TTP'') or ''Theologico-Political Treatise'' was one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. In it, Spinoza expounds his vie ...
'' (1670).
The ''Tractatus'' is written in an austere and succinct literary style, containing almost no arguments as such, but consists of altogether 525 declarative statements, which are hierarchically numbered.
The ''Tractatus'' is recognized by philosophers as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century and was influential chiefly amongst the
logical positivist philosophers of the
Vienna Circle, such as
Rudolf Carnap and
Friedrich Waismann and
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...
's article "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism".
Wittgenstein's later works, notably the posthumously published ''
Philosophical Investigations'', criticised many of his earlier ideas in the ''Tractatus''.
Description and context
The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (widely abbreviated and
cited as TLP) is the only book-length philosophical work by the Austrian
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
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. He is consi ...
which was published during his lifetime. The project had a broad goal: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science. The work was originally published in German in 1921 as ''Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung'' (Logical-Philosophical Treatise). In 1922 it was published together with an English translation; the English text and that book bear the Latin title, which was suggested by
G. E. Moore as homage to
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
's ''
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Written by the Dutch philosopher Benedictus Spinoza, the ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'' (''TTP'') or ''Theologico-Political Treatise'' was one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. In it, Spinoza expounds his vie ...
'' (1670).
Wittgenstein wrote the notes for the ''Tractatus'' while he was a soldier during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and completed it during a military leave in the summer of 1918.
The ''Tractatus'' employs an austere and succinct literary style. The work contains almost no arguments as such, but rather consists of declarative statements, or passages, that are meant to be self-evident. The statements are hierarchically numbered, with seven basic propositions at the primary level (numbered 1–7), with each sub-level being a comment on or elaboration of the statement at the next higher level (e.g., 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13). In all, the Tractatus comprises 525 numbered statements.
The ''Tractatus'' is recognized by philosophers as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century and was influential chiefly amongst the
logical positivist philosophers of the
Vienna Circle, such as
Rudolf Carnap and
Friedrich Waismann.
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...
's article "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" is presented as a working out of ideas that he had learned from Wittgenstein.
Wittgenstein's later works, notably the posthumously published ''
Philosophical Investigations'', criticised many of his earlier ideas in the ''Tractatus''.
Main theses
There are seven main
proposition
In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...
s in the text. These are:
# The world is everything that is the case.
# What is the case (a fact) is the existence of states of affairs.
# A logical picture of facts is a thought.
# A thought is a proposition with a sense.
# A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions. (An elementary proposition is a truth-function of itself.)
# The general form of a proposition is the general form of a
truth function
In logic, a truth function is a function that accepts truth values as input and produces a unique truth value as output. In other words: The input and output of a truth function are all truth values; a truth function will always output exactly o ...
, which is: