Final Exam: Wittgenstein Flashcards
What is Wittgenstein’s logical atomism?
The world is built out of facts. The most basic facts are atomic facts which are combinations of objects. The ways in which an object can and cannot combine with other objects is what makes that object. To get a complete account of the world, we must know the objects and what they are doing.
How is Wittgenstein’s logical atomism distinct from Russell’s?
Wittgenstein does not believe there needs to be universal and negative facts. This is because the world is determined by all the facts and their being all the facts. So all the atomic facts exclude certain possibilities and grant knowledge of everything about each case.
What is Wittgenstein’s picture theory of meaning?
Elementary propositions assert the existence of an atomic fact. When analyzed, they are a series of names for objects, and the organization of names in the sentence show how the objects configure together. In this way, elementary propositions picture reality.
What is Wittgenstein’s account of non-elementary propositions?
Non-elementary propositions are truth-functions of elementary propositions and tell us how to think which world is real of the represented possibilities.
What is Wittgenstein’s view on belief attribution?
A sentence like “He believes Scott wrote Q” means “x says x.” “He accepts the sentence ‘Scott wrote Q,’ and ‘Scott wrote Q’ says that Scott wrote Q.”
What is Wittgenstein’s account of sense and nonsense?
Empirical and scientific propositions have sense because they are true in some logical space while false in other worlds.
Logical and mathematical propositions have neither sense nor nonsense because while they say nothing, they show something.
Gibberish, ethical propositions, and metaphysical propositions are all nonsense.
What is Wittgenstein’s view on solipsism?
Logical possibility is a construct of my thought. So from my perspective, there is no logically possible world where I don’t exist. But from someone else’s perspective, there is a logically possible world where I don’t exist.
