Wittgenstein’s Early Philosophy; Interpretations and Applications

Author
M. Mohseni
Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.58209/jpt.5.2.165
Abstract
The basis of Wittgenstein’s early thought is that concepts like God and values ​​have no representation in names, that is, they are never named, because names stand only for things that are simple, solid parts of the world. Since these things are never named and have no simple signs within the proposition to represent them in the proposition, no meaningful proposition can ever be formed about them, and no meaningful talk can be said about them. If Wittgenstein’s theory had ended there, we would be right to call Wittgenstein a positivist. But the final paragraphs of the Tractatus provide evidence that a positivist interpretation of the Tractatus cannot be what Wittgenstein intended. Wittgenstein was not claiming that there is no God, that life is completely meaningless, and that values ​​are illusions; rather, his argument was directed at the limits of language. He said that one should remain silent about what is beyond the scope of language.

Keywords

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Philosophical Thought
Volume 5, Issue 2 - Serial Number 18
Winter 2025
Pages 165-178