LOGIC AND LANGUAGE IN WITTGENSTEIN'S TRACTATUS LOGICO- PHILOSOPHICUS

Abstract

This paper sets out to investigate some fundamental aspects of TWittgenstein conception of language and logic in his Tractatus Logico Philosophicus. This is with the aim of showcasing a new perspective in the understanding Wittgenstein's philosophical thought process. In this paper we shall argue that the starting point or the best way to understand Wittgenstein's Tractatus is to understand his response to Frege's conception of logic, G.E Moore and Russell's theory of judgment. And that from these scholars he was able to come build philosophy of language and logic. in the early analytic period. To buttress this argument the paper examines Wittgenstein's position and account of the relation between elementary and molecular propositions in the Tractatus. The paper observes that a natural and careful reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus gives an account of fundamental propositions, based on the picture theory, and a different account of molecular ones hinged on the principle of truth functionality, and that logical complexity is already given by a correct account and understanding of the pictorial nature of elementary proposition. This implies that an elementary proposition as he posits “contains all logical constants/operations. This paper concludes that Wittgenstein's Tractatus can be said to stipulate a consolidated or unified account of language and logic.