Sense and Value in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

The book provides an all-around interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with special emphasis on the book’s treatment of ethics and value. It is composed of two parts: The first deals with the problem of the sense of the proposition that the Tractatus sets out to solve and with the main notions and arguments Wittgenstein uses in his account of language and logic. The second part deals with the problem of value and ethics. It presents an analysis of the ethical perspective implicit in the ethical remarks of the Tractatus and the main notions it involves—through the drawing of parallels with the works of authors that Wittgenstein held in high esteem. In other words, the project presents an exegesis of the concluding ethical themes of the Tractatus in their relation to the scientific conception of the world and language that the book advocates in its main part. An exegesis of Wittgenstein’s concluding remarks on ethics that sees them as advocating an old conception of the ethical—albeit one presented in a new form.