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A REDUCTIVE READING of the TRACTATUS Interpretation of the Book Being About How to Defeat Skepticism

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A REDUCTIVE READING of the TRACTATUS Interpretation of the Book Being About How to Defeat Skepticism 2015 Umeå University, Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Stefan Karlsson Supervisor: Andreas Stokke Examinor: Peter Melander Level: Bachelor’s thesis A REDUCTIVE READING OF THE TRACTATUS Interpretation of the book being about how to defeat skepticism. Content Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Traditional readings ................................................................................................................................. 7 Meta-physical interpretations ............................................................................................................. 7 Traditional readings of the nonsense concept in the Tractatus ......................................................... 8 The ineffable truth interpretation ................................................................................................... 8 What can be said and what can be shown ...................................................................................... 9 Modern readings ................................................................................................................................... 10 Diamonds resolute reading ............................................................................................................... 10 Throwing away the ladder ............................................................................................................. 11 The Tractatus as a refutation of transcendental idealism ............................................................ 12 Nonsense as elucidations .................................................................................................................. 12 What is elucidated ......................................................................................................................... 13 A knowledge-how interpretation ...................................................................................................... 13 The limits of thinking ..................................................................................................................... 14 Wittgensteinian nonsense as knowledge-how ............................................................................. 15 A reconciliatory view ..................................................................................................................... 16 Kremer and the Purpose of the nonsense in the Tractatus .............................................................. 16 Ethical doctrines as instances of the sin of pride .......................................................................... 16 The Tractatus is about finding harmony ....................................................................................... 19 A resolute way of reading ............................................................................................................. 20 Proposed reading .................................................................................................................................. 21 Concepts and further background to support the proposed reading ............................................... 21 The Tractatus concept of a proposition ........................................................................................ 22 2 Nonsense interpreted ................................................................................................................... 23 Meta-physics (as a attempt to revert skepticism) ......................................................................... 23 Modus ponens ............................................................................................................................... 24 The Tractatus leads to a reductio ad absurdum given its context .................................................... 24 Definitions for used expressions ................................................................................................... 24 The specific argument ................................................................................................................... 25 The main purpose of the book must be convey knowledge-how ..................................................... 26 The general method .......................................................................................................................... 28 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 31 3 Abstract Modern readings of the Tractatus focus on the concept of nonsense instead of the meta-physics presented in the book. In fact a resolute reading sees the body of the system as mere nonsense and calls it a “ladder that should be thrown away”1. Other readings have seen the Tractatus as conveying knowledge-how2 and some have seen the work as to be illustrating limitation of doctrinal systems such as the Mosaic Law3. In this paper it is argued that the Tractatus can be read as leading to a reductio ad absurdum read in its context. A reductive reading is presented that interprets the purpose of the book as conveying a method that can be used to defeat skepticism. The concept of nonsense as developed in the Tractatus is crucial for this understanding. It turns out that you can in fact discard the meta-physics of the book since when you have defeated skepticism you have come to a solid place. There is a way to determine the truth-value of all propositions about the world. Thus a resolute reading of the Tractatus is confirmed, when it comes to the meta-physical content, but the book still conveys knowledge how. 1 Cora Diamond, “Throwing away the ladder”, Philosophy, Volume 63 (243), pp. 5-27, 1998. 2 Adrian W. Moore and Peter Sullivan, “Ineffability and Nonsense”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary, Volume 77, pp. 169-223, 2003. 3 Michael Kremer, “The Purpose of Tractarian Nonsense”, Noûs, Volume 35, pp. 39-73, 2001. 4 Introduction Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus4 is a contradictory book. It starts by outlining a comprehensive meta-physical system. It contains many insights on logical notational systems. Further, the relationship between language and the world is described. However, in the end it claims that all sentences in the book are in fact nonsense. Is the main topic meta-physics, or is the main topic nonsense? Today, many new readers would like to answer that it is in fact the discussion of nonsense that is the main contribution of the book, a concept developed therein. A further addressed issue is what the purpose of the book is, since Wittgenstein himself claims in the book that all numbered statements of the book are nonsensical5,. There is a plenitude of interpretations of the Tractatus. According to a traditional reading, as for instance Anscombe’s6, the Tractatus most prominent part is its meta-physical system, with a theory about the world, language, and logic that connects them. Modern readers like Diamond7 claim that Wittgenstein is actually trying to say that such talk about meta-physics should be left aside as nonsense, which is the conclusion that Wittgenstein draws by the end of his book. According to what is called a resolute reading8 of the Tractatus, the entire meta-physical system of the book must be thrown away. Other readings9 see the book as conveying knowledge-how and Kremer 10claim the purpose of the book is about overcoming doctrinal systems. What I investigate in this paper is if modern readings are correct in that nonsense is the main concept under analysis in the Tractatus. Insights are drawn from different types or readings to archive an understanding of the Tractatus that resolves this issue. I present in this paper a way to read the Tractatus reductively and claim that the Tractatus is to be read as leading to a reductio ad absurdum11 in its context. This main contribution of this paper is based on taking together insights from modern readings and reading the book given its context. The outcome of the investigation is that the main content of the book is indeed connected to the introduction of the concept of the Tractatus concept of nonsense. Sentences that have no truth- 4 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, English translation by Ogden(1922) , 1921.; hereafter referred to as simply the Tractatus. 5 The Tractatus, 6.54 6 Gertrud E. M. Anscombe, An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1971. 7 Diamond, 1998. 8 E.g. Diamond, 1998 & Kremer, 2001. 9 Moore & Sullivan, 2003. 10 Kremer, 2001. 11 Reductio ad absurdum is a method of argumentation. It is used to show that a statement is true due to that its denial leads to a false, untenable or absurd result. 5 conditions are nonsensical and I understand that sentences that are based on reason lack truth- conditions and thus must be nonsense. Since meta-physics is based on reason it is nonsense, and the book is in fact not a meta-physical
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