Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. This item is unavailable.Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully-numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance it immediately convinced many of its readers and captured the imagination of all. Its chief influence, at first, was on the Logical Positivists of the 1920s and 30s, but many other philosophers were stimulated by its philosophy of language, finding attractive, even if ultimately unsatisfactory, its view that propositions were pictures of reality. Perhaps most of all, its own author, after his return to philosophy in the late 1920s, was fascinated by its vision of an inexpressible, crystalline world of logical relationships. The posthumous publication of other writings of his has, therefore, only served to reawaken interest in the Tractatus and to illuminate its more neglected aspects. In the present edition Mr Pears and Mr McGuinness have been able to revise their translation in the light of Wittgenstein's own suggestions and comments in his correspondence with C.K. Ogden about the first translation. 'Mr Pears and Mr McGuinness have not only achieved a clear and natural English but have been meticulous in their care for accuracy. They have added an index which will be of great value to close students of the work' (The Times Literary Supplement). 'Pears and McGuinness can claim our gratitude not for doing merely this [a better translation] but for doing it with such a near approach to perfection. The present reviewer can find little or nothing of consequence wrong with their work' (Mind).

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was arguably the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. He was born in Vienna, but studied and practiced philosophy in Great Britain. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947. He worked in and transformed the fields of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.