Remarks on Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

[Sam26]

For those of you who would like to understand Wittgenstein's Tractatus, I'm going to post some key ideas that hopefully will help you understand one of the most difficult works in philosophy.

I'm trying to think of how to summarize the Tractatus in simple terms, but it's not an easy task.  The Tractatus is the only philosophical book that Wittgenstein published in his lifetime.  He did publish, if I remember correctly, a children's dictionary, and a short philosophical paper called Remarks on Logical Form,  but that's it.  In spite of the fact that that was all he published, Wittgenstein did write much more, and what he did write is commonly referred to as his notes.  On Certainty contains the last of his notes, and the last entry is two days before he died of cancer in 1951. 
 
The Tractatus is a difficult work to understand, and it's misunderstood by many philosophers.  Even Russell misunderstood the Tractatus when it was first published.
The Tractatus, which was published in 1921, and interestingly enough was partly written while he was in the trenches during WW1, is a most original work of philosophy.  It's used as his thesis to receive his Ph.D. from Cambridge in June of 1929.  Wittgenstein presented the Tractatus before Russell and Moore in an oral examination; and it's this work that sets out what is commonly referred to as his early philosophy.  Wittgenstein believed that the Tractatus solved many of the problems of philosophy; and  as a result Wittgenstein leaves philosophy and becomes an elementary school teacher.  It's during this time that Wittgenstein wrote and published a children's dictionary.  But it's my opinion, that during this time, i.e., teaching children, that Wittgenstein begins to form some of his thinking in terms of his later philosophy.  His later philosophy is culminated in his work called The Philosophical Investigations.
 
There is a transitional period from his early philosophy to his later philosophy which starts when he returns to Cambridge to teach philosophy in 1929.  During this time he writes on a variety of subjects, and one slowly begins to see his rejection of some of his philosophical ideas presented in the Tractatus.  It's a common misunderstanding that Wittgenstein rejected his early philosophy, but this is inaccurate.  It's true that he rejected some of his thinking, but not all of it.      
 
What is Wittgenstein's main task in the Tractatus?  Well, if we look at his pre-Tractatus notes, called the Notebooks (1914-1916), we note the following:  "My whole task consists in explaining the nature of the proposition [sentences] (p. 39)."  The German word satz is sometimes translated as sentence, and other times as proposition.  The question for Wittgenstein is how is it possible to represent a fact with a group of words, i.e., how can I say that such-and-such is the case, or is not the case?  

I will continue...

-- Updated July 9th, 2017, 10:15 am to add the following --

Post #2
I try in all my posts to use plain language without much of the philosophical jargon. I think if we post as simply as possible, then it's easier for people to understand. Let's see if I can accomplish this while explaining the Tractatus.

So again, Wittgenstein wants to know how it is that a proposition represents a fact, and how is it that we able to represent a fact using a string of words? Wittgenstein's solution to the problem happens, as the story goes, while reading how in a court case an accident was represented, i.e., the account is explained using small models. Thus, the models are placed in different places to show how the accident could have happened. The different accounts or pictures are used to explain (using propositions or sentences) how things would stand in reality if the account was accurate or true. "A picture is a model of reality (T, 2.12)." Thus propositions model reality, since propositions are possible pictures of states-of-affairs or facts. Think of the things used in the court room, the models used, and how each possible arrangement of the model represents a possible state-of-affairs or fact. Each possible state-of-affairs is a picture of how reality might be, i.e., each picture represents how something might be the case, or not the case (true or false). Thus a proposition is either true or false depending on its portrayal of reality.

-- Updated July 9th, 2017, 1:16 pm to add the following --

Post #3

Continuing with Wittgenstein's picture theory...

Wittgenstein constructs an a priori (independent of experience) theory of propositions based on the idea that propositions are literal pictures of states-of-affairs or facts. This idea of Wittgenstein's in the Tractatus contrasts sharply with his method (a posteriori, or derived from experience) in the Philosophical Investigations. Wittgenstein is still investigating the proposition in the PI, but his method is different.

In the Tractatus Wittgenstein tries to demonstrate that a proposition has something in common with what it pictures, viz., pictorial form. "Pictorial form is the possibility that things are related to one another in the same way as the elements of a picture. That is how a picture is attached to reality; it reaches right out to it. It is laid against reality like a measure (T, 2.151- 2.1512)." Think of the form of the picture as the arrangement of the things in the picture. This arrangement must correspond with the arrangement of things in reality. Thus, "[w]hat a picture must have in common with reality, in order to be able to depict it--correctly or incorrectly--in the way it does, it its pictorial form (T, 2.17)."

-- Updated July 10th, 2017, 4:49 pm to add the following --

Post #4

The logic of a proposition, if it is to depict reality, must have a form in common. A proposition's form, which are the arrangement of things in the proposition (i.e., the proposition presents a picture with things arranged in a certain way), must match the form of reality. The form of reality, are the facts of reality, which are the arrangement of things in reality (states-of-affairs). There is a kind of built in logic to all possible states-of-affairs. Thus if a proposition is to be true or not, then it must match that logic in some way. A proposition matches it (the logical form of states-of-affairs/facts) by presenting that logical form using language. Thus, language paints a picture. A proposition models reality through its pictorial form.

"A picture is a fact (2.141)"

"The fact that the elements of a picture are related to one another in a determinate way represents that things are related to one another in the same way.

"Let us call this connexion of its elements the structure of the picture, and let us call the possibility of this structure the pictorial form of the picture (2.15)"

"Pictorial form is the possibility that things are related to one another in the same way as the elements of the picture (2.151)."

"That is how a picture is attached to reality; it reaches right out to it (2.1511)"

"It is laid against reality like a measure (2.1512)."

I don't think there is any easy way to present Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Hopefully people will begin to understand Wittgenstein's theory in the Tractatus, as I explain it, but I'm not hopeful.