This log was inspired by "How to Read Wittgenstein" and "Ludwig Wittgenstein: the duty of genius" by Ray Monk. It is based on reading Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein translated by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness (Routledge and Kegan Paul:1963)

Monday, April 7, 2008

The world does not depend on me.

Even if all that one wishes were to happen, this could still only be called the Grace of God. There is no logical association between one's will and the world to guarantee it. The physical association one presumes to exist between any and every thing is surely nothing we could will ourselves. Just as only logical necessity exists, so too only logical impossibility exists. For example: that two colors are simultaneously present at the same place in the visual field is in fact logically impossible, since it is ruled out by the logical structure of color.

In physics, this contradiction appears like this: a particle cannot have two velocities at the same time; it cannot be in two places at the same time; particles that are in different places at the same time cannot be identical.

It is clear that the logical product of two elemental propositions can neither be a tautology nor a contradiction. The assertion that a point in the visual field has two different colors at the same time is a contradiction.

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