Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein was perhaps one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. His contributions to analytical philosophy and the philosophy of mind constitute a real break from philosophy in the classical sense. A short description of his life and contributions can be found here on Wikipedia.

Nietzsche believed philosophy to be a sort of autobiography of the philosopher; a dissertation on their own mind. Wittgenstein broke with this tradition in a way that, while certainly not a complete objectification, called into question the whole focus and purpose of philosophy. It is due to him, in part, that I place such emphasis on the clarity of words in informationalism. It is very easy for one to become lost in one's own words. One advances a sublime and beautiful rhetoric, as in the case of Rousseau, and in this "beauty" one loses the desire to understand exactly what it is that they are advancing. This is a tragedy that has befallen many great men.

So here I will present and then comment on some of his basic postulates in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus:

1. The World is everything that is the case.

2. What is the case, the fact, is the existence of atomic facts.

3. The Logical picture of the facts is the thought.

4. The thought is the significant proposition.

5. Propositions are truth-functions of elementary propositions.

6. The general form of truth-function is the general form of proposition.

7. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

What is the the basis of this philosophy?

Wittgenstein suggests here that "reality" is the collection of atomic facts. These atomic facts are statements that in themselves are true. We arrange these atomic facts in our mind to form propositions. If atomic facts cannot be found to be in concordance with the proposition, one cannot speak of whatever thought the mind has formed.

The point behind this is not Wittgenstein's overall philosophy. Nor is it even the existence of the atomic facts. What I suggest here is that in the realm of seeking information, it is important not to blindly accept statements as true because of the way they sound or appeal to us. Despite the emotions we may feel, we must break down even the most beautiful aphorisms, because beauty itself is a human construction.