Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter
4.031 explained
Wittgenstein explains that a proposition experimentally puts together a state of affairs, and that the sense of a proposition is equivalent to the state of affairs it represents.
What happens
Wittgenstein explains that a proposition experimentally puts together a state of affairs, and that the sense of a proposition is equivalent to the state of affairs it represents.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
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
The proposition is described as a model or experimental arrangement of a state of affairs, reflecting the picturing relation.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Wittgenstein
Author of the propositional theory described in this section.
Key passages
“In the proposition a state of affairs is, as it were, put together for the sake of experiment.”
A proposition is like a trial assembly of a possible situation.
Wittgenstein uses the metaphor of an experiment to convey that propositions are not merely descriptions but active models.
“One can say, instead of, This proposition has such and such a sense, This proposition represents such and such a state of affairs.”
The meaning of a proposition is the situation it depicts.
This equates the sense of a proposition directly with the state of affairs it represents.
