A Book of Nonsense: Wittgenstein's Tractatus
PHIL 389
Spring 2026
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 386 |
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logic-Philosophicus is one of the most enigmatic and yet influential texts of 20th-century European philosophy. In this seminar we will explore its major themes in depth. In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein advances a conception of the nature of all representation. This conception invokes, on the one hand, the making of pictures, and, on the other, the uses of language. Central to the conception is the idea that representation and represented necessarily share a common form. So if language represents reality, then reality has the form of language. Wittgenstein thus declares, "The limits of my language signify the limits of my world." The pre-eminent place of language in the Tractatus is one of its most impactful legacies, contributing to the "linguistic turn" that can be observed in analytic philosophy around the turn of the twentieth century. Via this linguistic turn, Wittgenstein transforms the Kantian idea of the bounds of sense into a doctrine of meaningful linguistic use: distinguishing significant linguistic representations from signs that merely seem to make sense -- i.e., nonsense masquerading as sense. The Tractatus rejects "traditional" metaphysical philosophy as at bottom nonsense which says nothing true or false. But Wittgenstein also advances a distinction between what can be said by means of language, and what shows itself in our uses of language. And it turns out that what can be shown cannot be said. The twin ideas of nonsense and of showing lead to the deepest mysteries of the Tractatus: some seemingly "metaphysical" positions, such as solipsism and mysticism, in spite of being nonsense, nevertheless show what are, in some sense, truths. Most paradoxically, the words of the Tractatus themselves turn out to be nonsense and say nothing. Our final aim is an elucidation of what and how one is to learn from such a book of nonsense. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS PHIL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (College of Letters)(Philosophy) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
| Instructor(s): Shieh,Sanford Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 19 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 4 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 3 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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