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Material Points and Formal Concepts in the Early Wittgenstein

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Andreas Blank
Andreas Blank*
Affiliation:
The Cohn Institute, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978Tel Aviv, Israel
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Extract

In an influential article, Gerd Grasshoff has argued for the identification of the objects in Wittgenstein's Tractatus with the ultimate constituents of reality in Heinrich Hertz's Principles of Mechanics. Grasshoff's interpretation is based on two interrelated claims: (1) The specific determination of the objects in the world and the relation among them is the primary theme in Wittgenstein's early philosophy, because it is the primary theme for Hertz. (2) Wittgenstein did not assume the existence of simple objects on purely logical grounds without having specific examples of simple objects in mind, because Hertz did not do this.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2007 , pp. 245 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2007

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References

1 Abbreviations: Wittgenstein, Ludwig Notebooks 1914-16, 2nd ed. Wright, G.H. von and Anscombe, G.E.M. eds., Anscombe, G.E.M. trans. (Oxford: Blackwell 1979)Google Scholar [= NB]; Prototractatus: An Early Version of Tractatus Logico-Phüosophicus, McGuinness, B.F. Nyberg, T. G.H. von, Wright eds., Pears, D.F. and McGuinness, B.F. trans. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1971)Google Scholar [= PT]; Wittgenstein, Ludwig Tractatus Logico-Phüosophicus, Pears, D.F. and McGuinness, B.F. trans. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1971)Google Scholar [= TLP]; Wittgenstein, Ludwig Culture and Value, Wright, G.H. von ed., Winch, P. trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1980)Google Scholar [= CV]; Hertz, Heinrich The Principles of Mechanics, Jones, D.M. and Wiley, J.T. trans. (Boston: Dover 1956)Google Scholar [= PM].

2 Grasshoff, Gerd ‘Hertzian Objects in Wittgenstein's Tractatus,’ British Journal for the History of Philosophy 5 (1997), 95–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar A similar Interpretation has been suggested by Griffin, James Wittgenstein's Logical Atomism (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1965), 4–5;Google Scholar 49-50. For a critical overview of interpretations inspired by Grasshoff's article, see Nordmann, Alfred ‘Another New Wittgenstein: The Scientific and Engineering Background of the Tractatus,’ Perspectives on Science 10 (2002) 356-84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Grasshoff has pointed out several terminological problems in the English translation of the Principles of Mechanics as well as in the McGuinness-Pears translation of the Tractatus. Throughout the presentpaper, Grasshoff's suggestions concerning terminology have been adopted.

3 Grasshoff, ‘Hertzian Objects in Wittgenstein's Tractatus,’ 102-12.

4 Ibid., 88.

5 C.K. Ogden's translation; see Wittgenstein, Ludwig Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (London, 1922).Google Scholar The emphases in this and all other citations are Wittgenstein's.

6 Keyt, David ‘A New Interpretation of the Tractatus Examined,’ Philosophical Review 74 (1965) 229–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Contrary, e.g., to the view of Carruthers, Peter. Cf. his The Metaphysics of the Tractatus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1990), ch 3.Google Scholar

8 Barker, Peter ‘Hertz and Wittgenstein’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 11 (1980) 246–9;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Wilson, Andrew D. ‘Hertz, Boltzmann and Wittgenstein Reconsidered’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 20 (1989) 258–62;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Harre, Rom 'Wittgenstein: Science and Religion’, Philosophy 76 (2001) 214–17,CrossRefGoogle Scholar Hyder, David The Mechanics of Meaning: Propositional Content and the Logical Space of Wittgenstein's Tractatus (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter 2002), ch. 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 See Barker, ‘Hertz and Wittgenstein’, 250-6; Janik, Allan ‘How did Hertz Influence Wittgenstein's Philosophical Development?’ Grazer Philosophische Studien 49 (1994/95), 21–3.Google Scholar

10 Cf. the original edition: Hertz, Heinrich Die Prinzipien der Mechanik: In neuem Zusammenhange dargestellt, Gesammelte Werke, vol. 3, Lenard, Philip ed. (Leipzig, 1894).Google Scholar

11 Janik, ‘How Did Hertz Influence Wittgenstein's Philosophical Development?’ 27Google Scholar

12 See Heidelberger, Michael ‘From Helmholtz's Philosophy of Science to Hertz's Picture-Theory’, in Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher, Baird, D. Hughes, R.I.G. and Nordmann, A. eds. (Dordrecht and Boston: Kluwer 1998), 21–3.Google Scholar

13 On Wittgenstein's view of variables as propositional variables, see Kibed, Matthias Varga von ‘Variablen im Tractatus’, Erkenntnis 39 (1993) 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Anscombe, G.E.M. An Introduction to Wittgenstein''s Tractatus, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper 1965), 82, 99,123.Google Scholar

15 Ishiguro, Hide ‘Can the World Impose Logical Structure on Language?’ in Wittgenstein — Eine Neubewertung. Akten des 14. Internationalen Wittgenstein-Symposiums, Haller, R. and Brandl, J. eds. (Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky 1890), 25-6.Google Scholar

16 McGuinness, Brian ‘The So-Called Realism of the Tractatus’, in Perspectives on the Philosophy of Wittgenstein, Block, I. ed. (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press 1981), 65–6.Google Scholar