Posted by knut barde on October 14, 1998 at 18:10:19:
In Reply to: State of Affairs posted by Stephen Lai on July 30, 1998 at 06:20:16:
: Hello! i'm an Economics student at Liverpool University and have come across the Tractatus, but have not understood the most parts of it, since i've never studied it formally.
: But the really puzzling question for me is how can a prop. picture a state of affairs?
: For example, if i say "This table is brown" (i'll refer it as p from now on), p is true if and only if the table is brown, and p is false if it isn't brown.
: But my question is, p as a prop. can picture many states of affairs, eg. p is true when the table is brown and the chair is red; p is also true when the table is brown and the chair is blue.
: So, p is capable of picturing many many different states of affairs. Is this what Wittgenstein trying to say, or am i missing the point?
: Since i'm such a beginner on the subject, i will be truly grateful if someone could help me with this little query.
: Many thanks.
Your confusion stems from the fact that you are adding a chair. The state of affairs that W. is talking about only has the element of a table. In any event, later on in his life W. abandons the idea that propositions picture reality, they merely are part of language games that exist as forms of life among us. Also, realize that W. aks at the end of the tractatus that you throw away the ladder of his exposition in the tractatus, seeing it as essentially meaningless stuff in solving the problem of life.
To me this throwing away of the ladder has the same purpose as the buddhists' saying that you must kill the Buddha on your way to enlightenment. That is, don't attach yourself too strongly to any one thing, do not reify concepts.
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