A work of philosophical genius according to some, a work of art according to others. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus was published 100 years ago, in 1921. It’s a book that according to its own philosophy of language, is mostly nonsense. Language, according to the strict logic of the Tractatus, is meaningful only when it functions as a picture of the world, a crystal-clear reflection of the structure of reality. It follows that most philosophical questions are meaningless and have to be condemned to silence. The Tractatus went on to influence philosophical movements like the logical positivists, but its lasting significance remains a matter for debate. Leading Wittgenstein scholars offer their views on the question of its legacy today.

A.W. Moore

Like any other great philosophical work, the Tractatus has provoked vigorous exegetical debate.  And like any other great philosophical work, it has inspired both discipleship and opposition.  But unlike many great philosophical works, it has not done the former as a simple prelude to doing the latter.  Rather, its doing the former has been a significant component in its doing the latter.  One of the main points of contention between disciples and opponents has been precisely how to assess a work that generates such a variety of different reactions.  And this in turn is because of the extraordinary way in which, both implicitly and explicitly, the Tractatus requires its readers to acknowledge that most of it is nonsense.  In asking what we are to make of a work that does that, we are asking a question that is at once both exegetical and evaluative.  The Tractatus draws attention to itself in a way that few other philosophical works do.  It fascinates and inspires in a way that few other philosophical works do.  I think of it as being, among all the great twentieth-century philosophical works, the one that can most readily be classified as a great work of art.