Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter
4.46 explained
Wittgenstein distinguishes two extreme cases among possible groups of truth-conditions: tautology (true for all truth-possibilities) and contradiction (false for all truth-possibilities).
What happens
Wittgenstein distinguishes two extreme cases among possible groups of truth-conditions: tautology (true for all truth-possibilities) and contradiction (false for all truth-possibilities).
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- 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
- Logic and Tautology
Defines tautology and contradiction as extreme cases of truth-conditions
Characters to notice
- Mr. Wittgenstein
Author of the proposition
Key passages
“Among the possible groups of truth-conditions there are two extreme cases. In the one case the proposition is true for all the truth-possibilities of the elementary propositions. We say that the truth-conditions are tautological . In the second case the proposition is false for all the truth-possibilities. The truth-conditions are self-contradictory . In the first case we call the proposition a tautology, in the second case a contradiction.”
There are two limiting types of truth-conditions: tautologies, which are true for every possible assignment of truth-values to elementary propositions, and contradictions, which are false for every such assignment.
Clarifies the definitions of tautology and contradiction in terms of truth-conditions
