Abstract
It is not immediately clear from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus how to connect his idea there of an object with the logical ontologies of Frege and Russell. Toward clarification on this matter, this paper compares Russell’s and Wittgenstein’s versions of the thesis of an atomic fact that it is a complex composition. The claim arrived at is that whilst Russell (at times at least) has one particular of the elements of a fact – the relation – responsible for the unity of the whole, for Wittgenstein the unity of a fact is the product of copulative powers inherent in all its elements. All kinds of constituents of Tractarian facts – all kinds (forms) of object – are, to use Fregean terminology, unsaturated.
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Abbreviations and References
Works by Russell
OF: ‘On Functions’, in A. Urquhart (ed.), The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 4, Routledge, New York, 1994, pp. 96–110
PLA: ‘The Philosophy of Logical Atomism’, in R. C. Marsh (ed.), Logic and Knowledge, Allen and Unwin, London, 1956, pp. 177–281
PM: Principia Mathematica Vol. 1, CUP, Cambridge, 1925
POM: The Principles of Mathematics, Routledge, London, 1992
PP: The Problems of Philosophy, OUP, Oxford, 1998
RA: ‘Analytic Realism’, in J.G. Slater (ed.), The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 6, Routledge, London, 1992, pp. 132–146
RUP: ‘On the Relations of Universals and Particulars’, in R. C. Marsh (ed.), Logic and Knowledge, Allen and Unwin, London, 1956, pp. 105–124
TK: ‘Theory of Knowledge’, in E. R. Eames (ed.), The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 7, Allen and Unwin, London, 1984
WL: ‘What is Logic?’, in J. G. Slater (ed.), The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 6, Routledge, London, 1992, pp. 54–56
Works by Wittgenstein
BB: The Blue and Brown Books, Blackwell, Oxford, 1969
CL: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Cambridge Letters, B. McGuinness and G. H. von Wright (eds), Blackwell, Oxford, 1995
LO: Letters to C.K. Ogden, G. H. von Wright (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, 1973
LWL: Wittgenstein’s Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1932, D. Lee (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, 1980
PO: Philosophical Occasions, J. C. Klagge and A. Nordmann (ed.), Hackett, Indianapolis, 1993
TLP: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, tr. Ogden, Routledge, London, 1922, and tr. Pears and McGuinness; Routledge, London, 1961
WWK: Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, B. McGuinness (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, 1979
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Fogelin R.J. (1987). Wittgenstein. Routledge, London
Frege, G.: 1997, The Frege Reader, Beaney (ed.), Blackwell, Oxford.
Griffin N. (1993). ‘Terms, Relations, Complexes’. In: (eds) Russell and Analytic Philosophy, pp 159–192. University of Toronto Press, Toronto
Hacker P.M.S. (1989). Insight and Illusion. Thoemmes, Bristol
Kenny A. (1973). Wittgenstein. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass
Linsky L. (1992). ‘The Unity of the Proposition’. Journal of the History of Philosophy 30: 243–273
Ostrow M.B. (2002). Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. CUP, Cambridge
Proops, I.: ‘Wittgenstein’s Logical Atomism’, in Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2004 Edition) URL =< http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2004/entries/wittgenstein-atomism/> .
Ramsey, F. P.: 1990, Philosophical Papers, Mellor (ed.), CUP, Cambridge.
Sullivan P.M. (2005). ‘Identity Theories of Truth and the Tractatus’. Philosophical Investigations 28: 43–62
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Johnston, C. The Unity of a Tractarian Fact. Synthese 156, 231–251 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-006-0002-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-006-0002-4