This paper argues that Wittgenstein opposed theories of meaning, and did so for good reasons. Theories of meaning, in the sense discussed here, are attempts to explain what makes it the case that certain sounds, shapes, or movements are meaningful linguistic expressions. It is widely believed that Wittgenstein made fundamental contributions to this explanatory project. I argue, by contrast, that in both his early and later works, Wittgenstein endorsed a disjunctivist conception of language which rejects the assumption underlying the question (...) that such theories seek to answer—namely, the assumption that the notion of a meaningful linguistic expression admits of non-circular analysis. Moreover, I give two arguments in favor of the view I ascribe to Wittgenstein: one based on later Wittgenstein's discussion of meaning skepticism and one based on considerations concerning the identity of linguistic expressions. (shrink)

ABSTRACTIn 1931 Wittgenstein wrote: ‘the limit of language manifests itself in the impossibility of describing the fact that corresponds to a sentence without simply repeating the sentence’. Here, Wittgenstein claims, ‘we are involved … with the Kantian solution of the problem of philosophy’. This paper shows how this remark fits with Wittgenstein's early account of the substance of the world, his account of logic, and ultimately his view of philosophy. By contrast to the currently influential resolute reading of the Tractatus, (...) the paper argues that the early Wittgenstein did not aim at destroying the idea of a limit of language, but that the notion lies at the very heart of Wittgenstein's early view. In doing so, the paper employs and defends the Kantian interpretation of Wittgenstein's early philosophy. (shrink)

RESUMEN En este artículo trato de establecer que, según el Tractatus, la posibilidad de pensar que el espacio lógico fuera vacío es equivalente a la posibilidad de pensar que el mundo no hubiera existido. Tal representación viene dada por la última línea de una tabla de verdad que es una descripción completa del espacio lógico: es la línea en la que todas las proposiciones elementales son falsas. En primer lugar, argumentaré que una proposición elemental sería falsa -más que no tener (...) un valor de verdad- si fuera evaluada con respecto a un mundo posible en el que alguno de los objetos nombrados en esa proposición no existe. A continuación, tendré que mostrar que es posible que los objetos tractarianos no hubieran existido para poder concluir que es posible pensar que los objetos tractarianos no hubieran existido. Por último, estoy obligado a ofrecer una nueva interpretación del pasaje sobre la substancia.ABSTRACT In this paper I intend to establish that, according to the Tractatus, the possibility of thinking that the logical space were empty is equivalent to the possibility of thinking that the world had not existed. Such a representation is given by the bottom line of a truth-table which is a complete description of logical space: it is the line where all elementary propositions are false. Firstly, I will argue that an elementary proposition would be false -rather than lacking a truth-value- if it were evaluated with respect to a possible world in which some named object in that proposition does not exist. Then I will have to show that it is possible that the tractarian objects had not existed in order to conclude that it is possible to think that the tractarian objects had not existed. Finally, I am bound to offer a new interpretation of the substance passage. (shrink)

The article argues for a contextualised reading of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. It analyses in detail the role that use and application play in the text and how that supports a conception of transcendentality of logic that allows for contextualisation. The article identifies a tension in the text, between the requirement that sense be determinate and the contextual nature of application, and suggests that it is this tension that is a major driver of Wittgenstein’s later ideas.

In this article I offer a novel explanation of Wittgenstein’s claim, in his Tractatus, that to represent the logical form of a proposition would require our being positioned outside of logic. The account here presented aims to exploit a connection, widely noticed, between the logical forms of objects and those of the propositions in which the names of those objects figure. I show that the logical forms of propositions may, on Wittgenstein’s view, be identified with places in logical space, and (...) that places in logical space are reducible to the forms of both objects and their names. I argue, though, that according to Wittgenstein the representation of a proposition’s logical form would require the existence of a place in logical space not so reducible. I conclude that on Wittgenstein’s position, the attempt to represent logical forms cannot, therefore, succeed. (shrink)

In this essay I focus on the idea of the univocity of being, championed by Duns Scotus and given prominence more recently by Deleuze. Although I am interested in how this idea can be established, my primary concern is with something more basic: how the idea can even be properly thought. In the course of exploring this issue, which I do partly by borrowing some ideas about logical syntax from Wittgenstein's Tractatus, I try to show how there can be dialogue (...) between analytic philosophers and those of other traditions. (shrink)

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 264pp. £ 40.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978–0–19–969152–4.