Contingentism versus Necessitism: the Tractatus Standpoint

  • Pasquale Frascolla Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Napoli, Italy
  • Kurt Wischin Universidad de Granada, Spain
Keywords: Objects, Logical Space, Existence

Abstract

The paper provides an interpretation of section 2.013 of the Tractatus which casts light on the strategic role that that section plays in the early Wittgenstein’s version of the ontology of logical atomism. The far-reaching consequences that the proposed interpretation has on the issue of the metaphysical nature of objects are spelled out, and the identification of Tractatus objects with phenomenal qualities, that is with phenomenal abstract universals, is shown to be fully consistent with those consequences. As a by-product of the analysis, the standpoint of the Tractatus with respect to both contingentism and necessitism is clarified.

Author Biographies

Pasquale Frascolla, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Napoli, Italy

pasquale frascolla is Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Naples “Federico II”. His main research interests are in Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics, the Tractatus, inductive and deductive reasoning. Among his books, Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mathematics (Routledge 1994) and Understanding Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Routledge 2007).

Kurt Wischin, Universidad de Granada, Spain

Kurt Wischin es editor y secretario de redacción de Disputatio. Buletín de Investigación Filosófica. Él dio sus primeros pasos en la filosofía académica a principios de los años 1970 en la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad de Viena. Actualmente cuenta con una maestría en filosofía por parte de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UNAM, Ciudad de México y es actualmente doctorando en la Escuela Internacional de Posgrado de la Universidad de Granada. Ha publicado varios artículos, contribuido con capítulos a algunos libros y participado en congresos nacionales e internacionales.

References

Frascolla, Pasquale (2004). «On the Nature of Tractatus Objects». Dialectica vol. 58, num. 3, pp. 369-382.

Williamson, Timothy (2013). Modal Logic as Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1922). Tractatus logico-philosophicus, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co, 2001 edition in Routledge Classics, trans. D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness. London-New York: Routledge.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953). Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1979). Notebooks 1914–1916, G. H. von Wright and G. E. M. Anscombe (eds.), 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Published
2021-09-30
How to Cite
[1]
Frascolla, P. and Wischin, K. 2021. Contingentism versus Necessitism: the Tractatus Standpoint. Disputatio. 10, 18 (Sep. 2021), 145-163. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5607480.

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