The logic of our language

pp. 1-17

in: Robert L. Arrington, Peter M. Burkholder, Shannon Dubose, John Sallis, Philosophical logic, Berlin, Springer, 1967

Abstract

Wittgenstein wrote in the Tractatus that "logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror–image of the world." ¹ In line with his suggestion that a proposition is a "picture', Wittgenstein argued that propositions "show' the logical structure of the real. He was insistent, however, that "the apparent logical form of a proposition need not be its real one." ² As a result of this we can misunderstand the structure of fact. Philosophical problems arise just when "the logic of our language is misunderstood."³