I have been fascinated with Wittgenstein’s Tractus Logico-Philosophicus for long now. This was mainly owing to envy on my part about not knowing of these greats well enough to understand what the hype was all about. For example, I have always taken a liking for the works of David Foster Wallace and being a student of analytical philosophy as he once was, he did get alot into Wittgenstein. I have also had a copy of Logicomix for long now that I have not managed to yet finish but rather sits on my shelf.

Russell is always an old man replaced by the young in my mind. However great a public intellectual and philosopher in his own right as he may be, he always seems to be the path towards Wittgenstein or Gödel. Now, I could be very wrong. Regardless.

Of the initial seven propositions of Tractatus, the seventh fascinates me very much:

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

What are the things one cannot speak of? Does it only have to do with the things one cannot picture? Or can picture but is only nonsense in the world? Ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics? The Tractatus itself? Where does qualia come into the picture? Is it senseful or senseless or just plain nonsensical? The word mystical comes into play. That alone is fascinating.

See you tomorrow,
Avi.