Episode 7: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus: What Is There and Can We Talk About It?

Summary: Discussing the beginning (through around 3.1) of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Mr. W. wrote that the world is made up of facts (as opposed to things) and that these facts can be analyzed into atomic facts, but then refused to give even one example to help us understand what the hell he's talking about, and so Wes and Mark argue about it per usual while Seth corrects our German pronunciation. The first 3/4 of this episode was recorded off-site from our regular equipment, making the audio quality relatively sucky. Enjoy!<br> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440424217/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=theparexalif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399377&amp;creativeASIN=1440424217" target="_blank">Buy the book</a> or <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5740" target="_blank">read the text online</a>.<br> For a clearer explanation of fact-based ontology, see <a href="http://www.hist-analytic.com/RussellLAfacts.pdf" target="_blank">this short introduction by Bertrand Russell to his lectures on logical atomism</a>.<br> Our discussion of Wittgenstein continues in <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2009/09/04/episode-8-wittgenstein%E2%80%99s-tractatus-and-carnap-what-can-we-legitimately-talk-about/">episode 8</a>.<br> End song: "Facts for a Moment (What You Are to Me)," recorded in 1992 and released on the <a href="http://marklint.com">Mark Linsenmayer</a> album Spanish Armada, Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.<br>