Descripción

A 2-hour seminar on Wittgenstein's Tractatus imparted by Professor Peter Hanks will be held on Friday 13, from 10:30 to 12:30:

Pictures, Facts, and Objects in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Prof. Peter Hanks (University of Minnesota)

December 13. 10:30 AM
Room 4 Carlos Santamaria Center (ground floor)

Abstract:
In the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Wittgenstein held that atomic facts are logically independent of one another: “any one can either be the case or not be the case, and everything else remain the same,” (1.12).  He also believed that there is a fixed set of simple objects that forms the “substance of the world,” (2.201).  Here I explain what these claims mean and how they are both direct consequences of the picture theory of meaning.  I will also trace the connection between the picture theory and Wittgenstein’s fundamental thought, “that the ‘logical constants’ do not represent,” (4.0312).