Question 1

How is the limit to thought set?

Accepted Answer

Thought is identified as what is expressible in language. Language is made up of propositions picturing possible states of affairs. Complex molecular propositions are truth functions of elementary or atomic propositions. Wittgenstein found an operation on a set of propositions that would generate all the possible propositions (simple and logically complex) that could be formed from that set. Using that operation on the totality of elementary propositions yields everything that could be said-and so also everything that could be thought.

Question 2

About philosophy, Wittgenstein tells us:

Accepted Answer

A)  its task is to tell us the truth about ourselves. 
B)  it is not an activity, but a body of doctrine. 
C)  it aims at clarity. 
D)  when properly understood, it can be seen to be identical with science. 
A)  its task is to tell us the truth about ourselves. 
B)  it is not an activity, but a body of doctrine. 
C)  it aims at clarity. 
D)  when properly understood, it can be seen to be identical with science. C

Question 3

Wittgenstein's main aim in the Tractatus is to

Accepted Answer

A)  explain the nature of language. 
B)  give an account of how natural science is a priori knowable. 
C)  set a limit to thought. 
D)  make accessible the results of the new logic. 
A)  explain the nature of language. 
B)  give an account of how natural science is a priori knowable. 
C)  set a limit to thought. 
D)  make accessible the results of the new logic. C

Question 4

Language, in the Tractatus view,

Accepted Answer

A)  is composed partly of sense and partly of nonsense. 
B)  says nothing, but shows itself. 
C)  is obscure and needs to be reformed in the direction of an ideal language. 
D)  is, in the last analysis, composed of names in relation. 
A)  is composed partly of sense and partly of nonsense. 
B)  says nothing, but shows itself. 
C)  is obscure and needs to be reformed in the direction of an ideal language. 
D)  is, in the last analysis, composed of names in relation.

Question 5

Compare the solution given for the problem about the meaning of life in Wittgenstein's Tractatus with Nietzsche's solution in terms of the Overman and eternal recurrence.

Accepted Answer

Wittgenstein's solution to the problem o

Question 6

What is the world, according to the early views of Wittgenstein?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is the world, according to the...

Question 7

What is the task of philosophy, according to the early Wittgenstein? What is its correct method? Explain the ladder analogy.

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is the task of philosophy, according...

Question 8

Tautologies, Wittgenstein tells us,

Accepted Answer

A)  can be known to be true a priori. 
B)  are pictures of very peculiar facts. 
C)  show nothing. 
D)  are sometimes true and sometimes false, and you need a truth table to tell you when one is the case and when the other is. 
A)  can be known to be true a priori. 
B)  are pictures of very peculiar facts. 
C)  show nothing. 
D)  are sometimes true and sometimes false, and you need a truth table to tell you when one is the case and when the other is.

Question 9

In Wittgenstein's Tractatus, propositions are thought of as pictures. Very briefly,
a. What do propositions picture?
b. What do tautologies picture?
c. What do true propositions picture?
d. Can one elementary proposition entail another?

Accepted Answer

The answer of In Wittgenstein's Tractatus, propositions are thought of...

Question 10

In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein held that a proposition is a picture. Explain this.

Accepted Answer

The answer of In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein held that a...

Question 11

Russell's theory of definite descriptions

Accepted Answer

A)  explains the logic of phrases having the form "a
So-and-so." 
B)  assimilates the logic of definite descriptions to the logic of names. 
C)  assumes that definite descriptions have meaning only in the context of a sentence. 
D)  shows that definite descriptions are either true or false. 
A)  explains the logic of phrases having the form "a
So-and-so." 
B)  assimilates the logic of definite descriptions to the logic of names. 
C)  assumes that definite descriptions have meaning only in the context of a sentence. 
D)  shows that definite descriptions are either true or false.

Question 12

Sketch (in a general way, without all the details) how Russell's theory of definite descriptions can dispel confusion foisted upon us by misleading features of our language.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Sketch (in a general way, without all...

Question 13

Explain the verifiability criterion of meaningfulness and its consequences for ethics.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain the verifiability criterion of meaningfulness and...

Question 14

Contrast the view of value found in the pragmatists--for instance, in John Dewey's thought--with that in Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

Accepted Answer

The pragmatists, particularly John Dewey

Question 15

What problems does the verifiability criterion run into?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What problems does the verifiability criterion run...

Question 16

Is the philosophical self of the Tractatus more like Hume's fictional self or Kant's noumenal self? Explain.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Is the philosophical self of the Tractatus...

Question 17

Compare Wittgenstein on the nature of value with the positivist's account of value judgments. Are there similarities? What are the differences?
Essential

Accepted Answer

Wittgenstein and the positivists have di

Question 18

Which of these sentences can not be found in the Tractatus?

Accepted Answer

A)  "All propositions are of equal value." 
B)  "It is necessary for there to be propositions of ethics." 
C)  "The world is independent of my will." 
D)  "The world of the happy man is a different one from that of the unhappy man." 
A)  "All propositions are of equal value." 
B)  "It is necessary for there to be propositions of ethics." 
C)  "The world is independent of my will." 
D)  "The world of the happy man is a different one from that of the unhappy man."

Question 19

The world, according to the Tractatus, is

Accepted Answer

A)  a very complex thing. 
B)  all the possible states of affairs. 
C)  what would be pictured in the totality of true propositions. 
D)  unknowable. 
A)  a very complex thing. 
B)  all the possible states of affairs. 
C)  what would be pictured in the totality of true propositions. 
D)  unknowable.

Question 20

In Wittgenstein's Tractatus, every picture is taken to be

Accepted Answer

A)  a fact. 
B)  made up of elementary sentences "glued together" by logical words. 
C)  a tautology. 
D)  a picture of a fact. 
A)  a fact. 
B)  made up of elementary sentences "glued together" by logical words. 
C)  a tautology. 
D)  a picture of a fact.

Exam 25: The Pragmatists: Thought and Action

How is the limit to thought set?

About philosophy, Wittgenstein tells us:

Wittgenstein's main aim in the Tractatus is to

Language, in the Tractatus view,

Compare the solution given for the problem about the meaning of life in Wittgenstein's Tractatus with Nietzsche's solution in terms of the Overman and eternal recurrence.

What is the world, according to the early views of Wittgenstein?

What is the task of philosophy, according to the early Wittgenstein? What is its correct method? Explain the ladder analogy.

Tautologies, Wittgenstein tells us,

In Wittgenstein's Tractatus, propositions are thought of as pictures. Very briefly, a. What do propositions picture? b. What do tautologies picture? c. What do true propositions picture? d. Can one elementary proposition entail another?

In the Tractatus, Wittgenstein held that a proposition is a picture. Explain this.

Russell's theory of definite descriptions

Sketch (in a general way, without all the details) how Russell's theory of definite descriptions can dispel confusion foisted upon us by misleading features of our language.

Explain the verifiability criterion of meaningfulness and its consequences for ethics.

Contrast the view of value found in the pragmatists--for instance, in John Dewey's thought--with that in Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

What problems does the verifiability criterion run into?

Is the philosophical self of the Tractatus more like Hume's fictional self or Kant's noumenal self? Explain.

Compare Wittgenstein on the nature of value with the positivist's account of value judgments. Are there similarities? What are the differences? Essential

Which of these sentences can not be found in the Tractatus?

The world, according to the Tractatus, is

In Wittgenstein's Tractatus, every picture is taken to be

Before Philosophy: Myth in Hesiod and Homer

Philosophy Before Socrates

Appearance and Reality in Ancient India

The Sophists: Rhetoric and Relativism in Athens

Reason and Relativism in China

Socrates: to Know Oneself

The Trial and Death of Socrates

Plato: Knowing the Real and the Good

Aristotle: The Reality of the World

Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi: Virtue in Ancient China

Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics: Happiness for the Many

Jews and Christians: Sin, Salvation, and Love

Augustine: God and the Soul

Philosophy in the Islamic World: The Great Conversation Spreads Out

Anselm and Aquinas: Existence and Essence in God and the World

From Medieval to Modern Europe

René Descartes: Doubting Our Way to Certainty

Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley: Materialism and the Beginnings of Empiricism

David Hume: Unmasking the Pretensions of Reason

Immanuel Kant: Rehabilitating Reason Within Strict Limits

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Taking History Seriously

Kierkegaard and Marx: Two Ways to Correct Hegel

Moral and Political Reformers: The Happiness of All, Including Women

Friedrich Nietzsche: The Value of Existence

Ludwig Wittgenstein: Linguistic Analysis and Ordinary Language

Martin Heidegger: The Meaning of Being

Simone De Beauvoir: Existentialist, Feminist

Postmodernism: Derrida, Foucault, and Rorty

Physical Realism and the Mind: Quine, Denne

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