Book Review: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein

A TRIBUTE TO MY ‘VIENNA CIRCLE (1924-1936) TEACHERS ON THE OCCASION OF MY BIRTHDAY ON 31^ST MAY

I met Jonathan-an Anglo Indian old man in a B.E.S.T. Bus which I would often take to go to school. Coincidentally, we both used to board the same Bus! In the morning my time to leave for school and his time to go to work was the same! We also became friends due to meeting in the Bus. But he never told anything about himself except his name and his cultural identity. He just used to say that in the life of seventy years, he tried to know life and will continue to do it. What should a child like me talk to him? At that time, I could not even speak proper English. So we used to have conversations (mostly one sided) in Marathi, Hindi and a little bit of English! His personality was very serious, and I used to think why he talks to me only. Well, the continuation of conversation lasted for two years, we continued to meet on the street, on the footpaths, standing and talking. Then one day he suddenly disappeared and I could never meet him again. One evening, while eating a sandwich in the crowded market, this gentleman put some complicated questions, which I vividly remember. “Aniruddha, what kind of relation could you think you have with this life, with nature and with the Supreme Cause? Is life only death? Is there really an end to this nature and ours? The conversation lasted a long time taking tortuous twists and turns! In the end, he said a very complicated thing, he said, “Man created the language, and made a new prison, we try to understand and know the ‘play’ of this creation on the basis of our experiences, however what our eyes, our senses tell us that we cannot tell the whole thing from the language, perhaps that is why I am always worried whether my words have any ‘value’, any ‘meaning’? Whether am I really living an intellectual life with clear understanding? Of many of our remarkable meetings, i miss that evening so much! Perhaps the words of Mr. Jonathan inspired me to discover THE TRACTATUS LOGICO PHILOSOPHICUS in coming future.

The Tractatus Logico Philosophicus. The most influential philosophical work of the 20^th century that teaches us the bitter fact about the ‘limits of our thoughts” was born as fragments of raw ideas on the battlefield during first world war under the shadows of bullets and shells. The enigma that this book tries to decipher is a million dollar question that haunted mankind since the dawn of humanity- CAN WE KNOW THE TRUTH? All the great thinkers throughout history sought a single certainty; something which no one can refute like mathematical truths. The author of this enigmatic book was a lonely adventurer in the densest of the forests of Mathematics & Philosophy who decides to go against the so called ‘mainstream’ in search of ‘Truth’. In order to find that truth the author invents a mathematical logic. What better means of obtaining the certainty than an immutable language free from the seemingly eternal passions of the man? A complex equation is advanced- creating an impeccable method until the construction of thoughts reach a terrifying conclusion- there is no such truth outside of Mathematics. There is no way of finding a single absolute truth; an irrefutable argument which might help answer the questions of mankind. Philosophy therefore is dead because whereof we cannot speak thereof we must be silent. The Tractatus Logico Philosophicus- a work that challenged the very basic character of human quest for truth turned out to be the milestone in the ‘Archaeology of Thoughts’.

In the beginning of a 20^th century, in about 1921 Ludwig Wittgenstein, a young 32 years old Austrian-British Philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language published a book called “The Tractatus Logico Philosophicus”. The Book brought an end to western philosophy because when he finished he said “You know philosophy is really a method for getting rid of meaningless concepts”, so he practically got rid off all metaphysical concepts and ended up by saying “whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent”. This is a stark naked message indeed, for it renders literally unspeakable so much of human life. As Wittgenstein’s friend and colleague Frank Ramsey put it, “What we can’t say we can’t say, and we can’t whistle it either.” It was a great moment for the Philosophy Departments in Universities and Colleges all over the western world which lapsed in insane chaotic silence that finally ended up in unending academic chatter as the aftershocks of an “intellectual earthquake” brought by a ‘gigantic’ tsunami of ‘thoughts’.

“The basic building blocks of reality are simple objects combined to form states of affairs. Any possible state of affairs can either be the case or not be the case, independent of all other states of affairs. The world is the totality of all states of affairs that are the case. States of affairs can be combined together to form complex facts. States of affairs are combinations of objects. Objects are utterly simple and unanalyzable, and they can exist only in the context of states of affairs. They have a logical form that determines the ways in which they can be combined into states of affairs, and they fit into these states of affairs “like links in a chain”. That is, they fit together by virtue of their logical form alone, and do not need something extra (like a relational object) to hold them together.”

In this work Wittgenstein primarily argues two core ideas. First the limit of the thought is the limit of language and second the limit of language that it must always reference real world observations, the conclusion of these two points is that we can say or think only about what we observe and therefore metaphysics cannot be probed by the logic. While shedding light on ‘observable reality of the world’, Wittgenstein says, “The basic building blocks of reality are simple objects combined to form states of affairs. Any possible state of affairs can either be the case or not be the case, independent of all other states of affairs. The world is the totality of all states of affairs that are the case. States of affairs can be combined together to form complex facts. States of affairs are combinations of objects. Objects are utterly simple and unanalyzable, and they can exist only in the context of states of affairs. They have a logical form that determines the ways in which they can be combined into states of affairs, and they fit into these states of affairs “like links in a chain”. That is, they fit together by virtue of their logical form alone, and do not need something extra (like a relational object) to hold them together.”

The aforementioned argument of Wittgenstein also proves that we cannot see or think of higher principles such as God, Death, Heaven, Hell, Ethics or Ethereal entities because these are metaphysical concepts which lie outside the realm of reality. Wittgenstein concludes his work by saying that “which we cannot observe and therefore cannot think or talk about we must ignore”. We cannot think about what we cannot see and together this makes the strongest argument for agnosticism or an epicurean or Buddhist view of God or Death that it lies beyond what can be understood.

Wittgenstein’s inclination towards positivism is visible throughout the Tractatus.  He insists that the only articulable knowledge is that provided by the natural sciences.  His objects and their arrangements accommodate nothing else.  Atomic facts combine only by logical operators.  He concludes that there is no causality, since his framework has no place for it.  Wittgenstein’s view on causation in Tractatus follows David Hume in rejecting the idea of causal necessity. There is only one kind of necessity, namely logical necessity; ‘outside logic everything is accidental.’ This means that there is ‘no causal nexus’ to justify an inference from the existence of one situation to that of another. Hence, too, there is no ‘compulsion’ that one thing should happen because another has happened, and we cannot know future events. This thought goes against celebrated Buddhist theory of ‘Dependent Origination’ (Pratītyasamutpāda).

I sincerely believe that the publication of this book in 1921 single handedly responsible for the death blow to modernism and emergence of post-modernism which had three different branches mainly abusrdism, nihilism and existentialism all of which were reactions to what Tractatus is claiming that we cannot find deep meaning or truth without a ‘God Principle’ because these truths cannot be derived from what we perceive in reality. This argument declare the death of metaphysics and of logical positivism the latter which was the attempt by the western societies to build an objective morality after the fall of Church in place of rational inquiry. Wittgenstein’s work emphasized empirical inquiry through scientific observations which gave way to pragmatism but this book also shows us that scientific observations cannot answer metaphysical inquiries. However, Wittgenstein preferred not to touch the ‘transcendental realism’ during his discourse which I am sure would have defeated the basic purpose of the Tractatus.

Today we are compelled to negotiate this intersectional point through modern neuroscience by linking disarray of perception and thought to dysfunctions in their physical substrates which is the brain. Neuroscience may or may not have answers to the subtle realities of human consciousness-if one desires to depart from mind-perception-understanding-illusion paradox; however what it at least can do is to develop various mathematical models to construct what is neither observable nor perceivable. The curious thing about Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics in the Tractatus is that it relies on the concept of “and so on” that great Mathematician Frege had gone to such lengths to eliminate. Wittgenstein seems not to give any rigorous account of how one number can be said to follow from the previous one. The difficulties of an expression such as “and so on” would occupy his later philosophy, but, in spite of being a careful student of Frege’s works, Wittgenstein seems strangely blind to these difficulties here which has clearly reflected in this Book. Despite some flaws in work, it has forever changed the life of some.

This book has a forward by Bertrand Russel who basically quit his career in analytical philosophy after this book showed that logic can only go so far. The book has six length propositions which form its arguments which I will now briefly describe. One, the world is composed of noble information that we call facts. Two, facts are pictures and pictures do two things 1. They convey a sense which is logical relationship between two objects and 2. They are either true or false relative to reality based on testing and examination from the natural sciences. No picture is true apriori. Three, all pictures are thoughts and all thoughts give a full picture of the world. We can note that, thoughts only show how things are not what they are because thoughts are only reference points to the pictures. Four, all thoughts are sentences we think with words. Sentences themselves cannot explain link between sentences and perceived reality as they are within reality. What can be shown cannot be said. Sentences are thoughts which are references of pictures but they are only references. Five, and this is where things get more complicated. All sentences can be reduced to elementary ‘truth functions’ however one truth function cannot be deduced from another truth function, so no observation can predict another observation. Trends cannot be logical; superstition link events whatever we observe could be different from what it actually is in the world so there is no apriori order of things in the world the individual is the limit of the world. This is essentially logic arguing for idealism and solipsism and Six, there can never be any surprises in logic, all deductions are apriori they’re already known they just have not been revealed yet because all thoughts are logical they must be equal and so any system with a hierarchy is transcendental because we can’t think or talk about them. It is not how things are in the world that makes them mystical but that it actually exists. I think it is true of Biology. It’s not the mechanism which are important it’s life itself that’s important. So together these six statements emphasize the ‘importance of seeing before thinking’ to know truth in the world and this encourages people to live more in the present and it brings optimism and liveliness to all of our observations but it also brings a lot of instability and chaos because my observations might not be your observations and we are constrained by Logic which could get infinitely flawed as well.

I may possibly want to argue that neuroscience has a potential to develop Wittgenstein’s theory by allowing us to actually observe the physical substrate of logic, the biological properties of the brain that are most responsible for conciliating thought can be shown rather than talked about. However, that will not solve the mystery of mind and consciousness as they can neither be shown nor observed.  Modern science says that consciousness is an emergent property of the physical activity of the neurons of the brain, however, questions as to how it happens, why it happens and most importantly what is the ‘LIMIT’ or ‘FINAL FRONTIER’ of human consciousness- remains unanswered.

Science struggle with trying to understand limits, real limits of human consciousness, perception and thought through seeing what is going on in the brain but it does impel us from describing them with logical syntax of language; in this case I can never really explain to you what a particular phenomenon is like, I can never really explain what seeing and living human life is like, what my favourite cuisine is like- WE CANNOT CONVEY WHAT WE OBSERVE THROUGH LANGUAGE, because language is a man-made prison wherein man runs from wall to wall without realizing the trap he has set for himself. Wittgenstein says, “In practice, language is always more or less vague, so that what we assert is never quite precise.”

So this book emphasizes both the importance of science but also shows its limits and also apparently provides the core defence to ‘Religion’ against science in that scientific observations of reality can’t explain things that are outside the realm of reality.

This book profoundly influenced the society. Wittgenstein should have also  credited William Shakespeare for influencing his ideas for in Romeo and Juliet in Act 2 Scene 2, when Juliet says “What’s in a name that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, William Shakespeare is getting at the arbitrariness of language to convey meaning, feeling or thought however it seems our Wittgenstein is not at all impressed by the so called ‘Wizard of the Words’-the Great Shakespeare- Wittgenstein quoted, “I am deeply suspicious of most of Shakespeare’s admirers. I think the trouble is that, in western culture at least, he stands alone, and so, one can only place him by placing him wrongly.”

Wittgenstein also argued that Shakespeare was more concerned about display of the dance of human passions while ignoring the fundamental questions concerning human existence. Shakespeare is not, in Wittgenstein’s eyes, a poet in this sense: he does not struggle with problems of the meaning of life. When we look at the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus we realize that this work is not merely a jugglery of abstract ideas but in-fact raising THE most Fundamental question before humanity and that is- What is REAL, What is REALITY and whether complete intellectual grasp over it is EVER possible, with the unborn life of language with fractured propositions; will Mathematical truths take us to the golden highway of the frontiers of absolute knowledge!

IT was Ludwig Wittgenstein who was the first to understand that the final task of philosophy is conceptual clarification and the dissolution of philosophical problems. In the Tractatus Wittgenstein’s logical construction of a philosophical system has a purpose—to find the limits of world, thought and language; in other words, to distinguish between sense and nonsense. Tractatus teaches us that, Philosophy cannot add to our knowledge of the world. Its role is to contribute to our understanding of what we do know and do not know.

If we take a look at 62 years old life of Ludwig Wittgenstein we find that he was, at the very beginning of his intellectual life in his teen age was inspired by a book named “Sex and Character” written by the Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger, whose suicide at the age of 23 in 1903 made him a cult figure throughout the German-speaking world. It is widely believed that what impressed Wittgenstein most about Weininger’s book is its austere but passionate insistence that the only thing worth living for was the aspiration to accomplish work of genius. In any case, it remains true that Wittgenstein’s life was characterized by a single-minded determination to live up to this latter ideal, in pursuit of which he was prepared to sacrifice almost everything else. With the success of Tractatus he declared to himself that the purpose of his life finally served. After publication of Tractatus Witgenstein left Philosophy (having, to his mind, solved all philosophical problems in the Tractatus), gave away his part of his family’s fortune and pursued several ‘professions’ (gardener, primary school teacher, architect, etc.) in and around Vienna. However, destiny had stored something else for him.

In 1929, after returning back to Cambridge to resume his philosophical vocation, after having been exposed to discussions on the philosophy of mathematics and science with members of the Vienna Circle (The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Schlick. They sought to reconceptualize empiricism by means of their interpretation of then recent advances in the physical and formal sciences), whose conception of logical empiricism was indebted to his Tractatus account of logic as tautologous, and his philosophy as concerned with logical syntax, caused revolutionary change in his ‘belief’ system about his work. His post Tractatus tenure in Cambridge was a period that heralded a rejection of dogmatic philosophy, including both traditional works and the Tractatus itself. He must have declared to himself that Tractatus was a ‘DEFEAT’.

Wittgenstein’s’ rectifications, reconciliations, reflections and new discoveries reflected in his second book titled “Philosophical Investigations” which he made sure to be published only after his death in the year of our Lord 1953.

Ludwig Wittgenstein emphasised that the nature of language in itself is a barrier to the thought and expression. The description of observable reality cannot be given within the set rules of language to achieve utmost clarity of underlying truth except by the propositions of natural science like Mathematics which will be free from human passions hence blindness.

“For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered”, says Wittgenstein in Tractatus.

The Tractatus Logico Philosophicus is one of the most complicated Books that I came across in my intellectual journey. Old man Jonathan-a mysterious stranger whom I was meeting as a child for two years planted the seeds of suspicion in my mind about the reality of this world, linguistic insanity, hollow human convictions & theories about it. This suspicion led me to Tractatus at very early age and I encountered one of the best minds the human civilization has ever produced- the great Prof. (Dr) Ludwig Wittgenstein.

If you want to read this book, you are welcome. But if you have understood this book then believe that your whole life will change, this book will have a deep, indelible effect on your mind and thinking, which will forever haunt you throughout your life. The Tractatus Logico Philosophicus will change you completely and force you to understand this life, this creation, this universe and insignificant human existence in a new conceptual dimension and this is the ultimate victory of the author- Ludwig Wittgenstein.

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