World and Life as One: Ethics and Ontology in Wittgenstein's Early Thought

by Martin Stokhof

Overview

This book explores in detail the relation between ontology and ethics in the early work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, notably the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and, to a lesser extent, the Notebooks 1914-1916. Self-contained and requiring no prior knowledge of Wittgenstein's thought, it is the first book-length argument that his views on ethics decisively shaped his ontological and semantic thought.

The book's main thesis is twofold. It argues that the ontological theory of the Tractatus is fundamentally dependent on its logical and linguistic doctrines: the tractarian world is the world as it appears in language and thought. It also maintains that this interpretation of the ontology of the Tractatus can be argued for not only on systematic grounds, but also via the contents of the ethical theory that it offers. Wittgenstein's views on ethics presuppose that language and thought are but one way in which we interact with reality.

Although detailed studies of Wittgenstein's ontology and ethics exist, this book is the first thorough investigation of the relationship between them. As an introduction to Wittgenstein, it sheds new light on an important aspect of his early thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804742221
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	07/31/2002
Series:	Cultural Memory in the Present
Edition description:	1
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Martin Stokhof is Professor of the Philosophy of Language and Scientific Director of the Institute for Logic, Language, and Communication at the University of Amsterdam. He is a co-author of Logic, Language, and Meaning, Volumes 1 and 2, and a textbook (in Dutch) on the philosophy of language.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xv
	Note on Translations	xvii
1	Backgrounds	1
	Introduction	1
	The Problem	4
	Logic	10
	Ethics	24
2	Main Themes	35
	Aims	35
	The Linguistic Turn	37
	The Ground-Plan of the 'Tractatus'	38
	Ontology	40
	Logical Atomism	40
	States of Affairs and Objects	44
	Structure and Form	49
	Picturing	52
	Pictures as Facts	52
	Pictorial Form and Pictorial Relation	53
	Logical Form	55
	Truth and Falsity	57
	Saying and Showing	58
	Thoughts as Pictures	60
	Language	63
	Sentences as Pictures	63
	Creativity and Compositionality	69
	Signs and Symbols	71
	The Realm of the Meaningful	75
	Elementary Sentences and Names	75
	Complex Sentences	80
	Logic	85
	Logic as Foundation	85
	Logic as Analysis	89
	Logic as System	91
	Nonlogical Necessity	97
	Mathematics	97
	Natural Science	99
	Conceptual Analysis	101
	The 'Tractatus'	102
3	Language and Ontology	104
	The Question of Realism	104
	Simplicity: The Argument from Language	110
	Determinateness of Meaning	111
	Semantic Ineffability	115
	Reconstructing the Argument	117
	The Nature of Objects	120
	Objects as a Logical Category	121
	Other Interpretations	126
	Conclusion	129
	Some Other Views	129
	Maslow: Instrumentalism	132
Excursus I	Wittgenstein and Logical Empiricism	134
Excursus II	Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle	141
	Back to Maslow's Interpretation	144
	Stenius's Interpretation	153
	Ishiguro and McGuinness: Structuralism	154
	Malcolm: Physicalism	171
	The Realism of the Tractatus	180
4	Ethics	186
	Introduction	186
	The Will	191
	Individual and Metaphysical Subject	192
	Knowing Subject and Willing Subject	194
	Solipsism and Realism	196
	The Will and the Willing Subject	203
	The Nature of the Good	210
	Ineffability	210
	Will, Action, Value	212
	Good Will	214
	The Happy Life	216
	Living in the Present	220
	Ethics and Morality	225
	Compassion and the Other	225
	Moral Consequences	227
	"World and Life as One"	234
	The Linguistic Nature of Transcendence	235
	Ethical Experience	239
	The Proper Interpretation of Ontology	241
	Concluding Remarks	244
	Notes	253
	Works Cited	303
	Index	313

Editorial Reviews

"This is an outstanding book. Owing to its broad and balanced scope, I know of no better book on the Tractatus. It is unique in covering in depth both the ontological-technical aspects and the ethical parts of that work."

Leyden University - Göran Sundholm

"This is an outstanding book. Owing to its broad and balanced scope, I know of no better book on the Tractatus. It is unique in covering in depth both the ontological-technical aspects and the ethical parts of that work."—Göran Sundholm, Leyden University

From the Publisher

"This is an outstanding book. Owing to its broad and balanced scope, I know of no better book on the Tractatus. It is unique in covering in depth both the ontological-technical aspects and the ethical parts of that work."

Leyden University - Göran Sundholm