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Article: How Original a Work is the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus?

TitleHow Original a Work is the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus?
Authors
KeywordsPhilosophy
Issue Date2002
PublisherCambridge University Press. The Journal's web site is located at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PHI
Citation
Philosophy, 2002, v. 77 n. 3, p. 421-446 How to Cite?
AbstractWittgenstein's Tractatus is widely regarded as a masterpiece, a brilliant, if flawed attempt to achieve an ‘unassailable and definitive … final solution’ to a wide range of philosophical problems. Yet, in a 1931 notebook, Wittgenstein confesses: ‘I think there is some truth in my idea that I am really only reproductive in my thinking. I think I have never invented a line of thinking but that it was always provided for me by someone else’. This disarming self-assessment is, I believe accurate. The Tractatus, despite making significant advances on the logical doctrines of Frege and Russell, is essentially a derivative work—Wittgenstein, as he elsewhere acknowledges, provided a fertile soil in which the original seeds of other peoples' thought grew in a unique way. In a play of mine, published in Philosophy (1999), Wittgenstein fails a tough viva on the Tractatus because he fails to properly support some of the weak arguments in the work and because of his inadequate acknowledgment of sources. The present paper further explores some of the antecedents of Wittgenstein's early views and answers some criticisms of the play.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/42173
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 0.8
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.459
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorGoldstein, Len_HK
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-08T02:30:57Z-
dc.date.available2007-01-08T02:30:57Z-
dc.date.issued2002en_HK
dc.identifier.citationPhilosophy, 2002, v. 77 n. 3, p. 421-446en_HK
dc.identifier.issn0031-8191en_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/42173-
dc.description.abstractWittgenstein's Tractatus is widely regarded as a masterpiece, a brilliant, if flawed attempt to achieve an ‘unassailable and definitive … final solution’ to a wide range of philosophical problems. Yet, in a 1931 notebook, Wittgenstein confesses: ‘I think there is some truth in my idea that I am really only reproductive in my thinking. I think I have never invented a line of thinking but that it was always provided for me by someone else’. This disarming self-assessment is, I believe accurate. The Tractatus, despite making significant advances on the logical doctrines of Frege and Russell, is essentially a derivative work—Wittgenstein, as he elsewhere acknowledges, provided a fertile soil in which the original seeds of other peoples' thought grew in a unique way. In a play of mine, published in Philosophy (1999), Wittgenstein fails a tough viva on the Tractatus because he fails to properly support some of the weak arguments in the work and because of his inadequate acknowledgment of sources. The present paper further explores some of the antecedents of Wittgenstein's early views and answers some criticisms of the play.en_HK
dc.format.extent129859 bytes-
dc.format.extent882704 bytes-
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf-
dc.format.mimetypeimage/jpeg-
dc.languageengen_HK
dc.publisherCambridge University Press. The Journal's web site is located at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PHIen_HK
dc.rightsPhilosophy. Copyright © Cambridge University Press.en_HK
dc.subjectPhilosophyen_HK
dc.titleHow Original a Work is the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus?en_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.openurlhttp://library.hku.hk:4550/resserv?sid=HKU:IR&issn=0031-8191&volume=77&issue=3&spage=421&epage=446&date=2002&atitle=How+Original+a+Work+is+the+Tractatus+Logico-Philosophicus?en_HK
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_versionen_HK
dc.identifier.doi10.1017/S0031819102000372en_HK
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-35348996886-
dc.identifier.hkuros81879-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000177597900007-
dc.identifier.issnl0031-8191-

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