Chapter 26 Self-Quiz

. Russell's theory of definite descriptions

explains the logic of phrases having the form"so-and-so."

assimilates the logic of definite descriptions to the logic of names.

assumes that definite descriptions have meaning only in the context of a sentence.

shows that definite descriptions are either true or false.

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

a fact.

made up of elementary sentences "glued together" by logical words.

a tautology.

a picture of a fact.

. The world, according to the Tractatus, is

a very complex thing.

all the possible states of affairs.

what would be pictured in the totality of true propositions.

unknowable.

. Language, in the Tractatus view,

is composed partly of sense and partly of nonsense.

says nothing, but shows itself.

is obscure and needs to be reformed in the direction of an ideal language.

is, in the last analysis, composed of names in relation.

. Tautologies, Wittgenstein tells us,

can be known to be true a priori.

are pictures of very peculiar facts.

show nothing.

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.

. Wittgenstein's main aim in the Tractatus is to

explain the nature of language.

give an account of how natural science is a priori knowable.

set a limit to thought.

make accessible the results of the new logic.

. About the part of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein did not write, he said that

it is composed of nonsense.

it is the more important part.

it deals with that part of natural science that remains to be discovered.

he would write that part in a subsequent volume.

. About the meaning of life, Wittgenstein holds that

only science can help us here.

language has so far been inadequate to the task of expressing it, but there is hope that it may be developed so as to solve the riddle.

the riddle can be answered in the clear words of the Tractatus.

the solution lies in the vanishing of the problem.

. About philosophy, Wittgenstein tells us:

its task is to tell us the truth about ourselves.

it is not an activity, but a body of doctrine.

it aims at clarity.

when properly understood, it can be seen to be identical with science.

. According to the verifiability criterion of factual meaningfulness,

propositions about God must be verifiable, since they deal with a factual question.

the meaning of an ethical proposition consists in its conditions of verifiability.

the criterion is itself verifiable.

nothing unverifiable can be meaningful.

. Logical positivists

tend to take the âobjectsâ of the Tractatus to be sense data.

agree with Wittgenstein about the importance of the mystical.

agree with Wittgenstein that ethical propositions express the feelings or sentiments of an individual.

admit they are talking nonsense when they set out the conditions of meaningful language.

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