Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The world is all that is the case.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein · Analytic philosophy · Modern · 1921
What does it mean?
The world, proposition 1 says, is all that is the case. Not a pile of things, but the totality of facts. The numbering is part of the sense, not a decoration. A rival reading, encouraged by the later Wittgenstein, thinks this opening locks him into a picture theory he will have to climb out of: the world as what can be stated in elementary propositions. He tells the reader, at the end, to throw the ladder away. A first sentence of this book is a piece of machinery.
Did Ludwig Wittgenstein really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Proposition 1, in the Ogden and in the Pears/McGuinness translations alike. Wittgenstein published the numbering as part of the sense. The German is Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Where it comes from
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, proposition 1
Approximate date: 1921.
How to use it
When you say 'the world' in an argument in a kitchen in Cardiff, notice whether you mean a pile of objects or a set of facts. He starts by choosing the second, and a surprising amount of the book follows from that choice. Your argument may not. Do not borrow the proposition to sound severe about someone else's facts.
A mindset reading
The opening is machinery for a limit. Ethics, in this book, is not stated as a further fact. It is pressed into what can be shown. That pressure is why the first sentence is not a proverb about realism.
Understand the philosophy
The Tractatus tries to draw the limit of what can be said. The later Wittgenstein criticises the picture this opening serves. Quoting proposition 1 as if the Investigations had never happened is a way of not reading either book.
- knowledge
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
The world, proposition 1 says, is all that is the case. Not a pile of things, but the totality of facts. The numbering is part of the sense, not a decoration. A rival reading, encouraged by the later Wittgenstein, thinks this opening locks him into a picture theory he will have to climb out of: the world as what can be stated in elementary propositions. He tells the reader, at the end, to throw the ladder away. A first sentence of this book is a piece of machinery.
Did Ludwig Wittgenstein really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Proposition 1, in the Ogden and in the Pears/McGuinness translations alike. Wittgenstein published the numbering as part of the sense. The German is Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Which work is it in?
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, proposition 1 Approximate date: 1921.