Ebook: The Conflicts of Modernity in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2016 — 273 p. — ISBN-10: 3631667809; ISBN-13: 978-3631667804.The author offers a new look at one of the most influential books in the history of philosophy: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. He presents the Tractatus as expressing the intellectual anxieties of its modernist epoch. The most intriguing but usually unanswered question concerning the Tractatus is why Wittgenstein had to think that only propositions of natural science have meaning. The author reviews the most popular interpretations of the Tractatus and comes to the conclusion that the early Wittgenstein was an ethical subjectivist. With this insight, he solves the tension between Tractarian theses that influenced neopositivism and its mystical part.ContentsIntroductionThe Problem of Ontology in the TractatusAnti-metaphysical interpretation of the Tractatus
The Argument for Substance
SummaryThe Simple Objects of the TractatusPhenomenalistic interpretation of the simples
Materialistic interpretation of the simples
Resolute interpretation of the Tractatus
SummaryWittgenstein's Theory of JudgementThe context of Wittgenstein's theory
Wittgenstein's criticism of Russell's views on judgement
The Tractatus 5.54-5.5422
Other interpretations of TLP 5.54-5.5422
SummaryThe Transcendental SelfThe transcendental philosophy of Schopenhauer
The willing subject
Solipsistic theses of the Tractatus
Tractarian understanding of death
General remarks about the transcendental interpretation
SummaryEthics in Wittgenstein's Early WritingsThe nonsense of ethics in the eyes of early Wittgenstein
Early Wittgenstein's subjectivism
Solipsistic theses of the Tractatus under a subjectivist reading
SummaryFinal Thoughts. The Defence of Human Values by early Wittgenstein