Nonsense and the Ineffable: Re-reading the Ethical Standpoint in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

Géza Kállay

Abstract


The paper examines the ethical standpoint of the Tractatus as it has been reconstructed by Cora Diamond (“the austere view”) and gives an account of some of the criticism this reconstruction has received in the work of P. M. S. Hacker and Meredith Williams (“the standard view”). The second half of the paper tries to argue that the austere and the standard views rather complement each other if we recognize “two I’-s” in the Tractatus and if it is supposed that there is a “3rd person” and “1st person” perspective which are both voiced on its pages.

Keywords


20th century philosophy; Wittgenstein Ludwig; Tractatus logico-philosophicus; perspective; third and first person; logical form; sense of reality

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References


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