Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter
2.161 explained
Wittgenstein asserts that for a picture to represent something, there must be an identity of form shared between the picture and what it depicts.
What happens
Wittgenstein asserts that for a picture to represent something, there must be an identity of form shared between the picture and what it depicts.
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Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This passage marks the story’s dramatic climax because it presents the moment when the protagonist’s obsessive…
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Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Picture Theory of Language
This proposition directly articulates the necessary condition for representation in the picture theory.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Wittgenstein
Author of the proposition
Key passages
“In the picture and the pictured there must be something identical in order that the one can be a picture of the other at all.”
A representation and its subject must share a common structure or form for the representation to be possible.
Identifies the condition of pictorial representation
