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The Question of Linguistic Idealism in the Tractatus

  • Javier Vidal
Published/Copyright: September 1, 2025
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Wittgenstein-Studien
From the journal Wittgenstein-Studien Volume 16 Issue 1

Abstract

According to the doctrine of linguistic idealism in the version discussed here, there is an essential isomorphism between language and the world because the form of language determines the form of the world. In this paper, I will propose an argument in favor of the idealist interpretation of the Tractatus. From an examination of a certain imaginary scenario, I will conclude that the form of objects, that is, the possible combinations of them into facts, is determined by the form of their names, that is, the possible combinations of those names into propositions. Additionally, I will present an interpretation under which Tractarian solipsism is nothing other than a formulation of the idealist conception of the world in first-person terms.

For the preparation of this paper, I benefited from the support provided by the Government of Chile (ANID) through Fondecyt Regular Project No. 1230041. I am also indebted to Camila Riquelme and Paula Riquelme for their stylistic revisions of the first English draft of this paper. Finally, I am grateful for the comments made by two anonymous reviewers, as well as for Anja Weiberg’s guidance throughout the review and editing process.

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Published Online: 2025-09-01
Published in Print: 2025-09-01

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titlepages
  4. Titlepages
  5. Articles
  6. Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
  7. Tractarian Nonsense and Literary Language
  8. The Middle Wittgenstein on Aesthetics
  9. The Question of Linguistic Idealism in the Tractatus
  10. Waismann and Waismann’s Wittgenstein
  11. Die Grenzen welcher Sprache?
  12. Wittgenstein on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams
  13. Wittgenstein über die Erkenntnis Anderer
  14. Shouldered In and Out of the Reality of Mortality
  15. On Deep Moral Disagreement Between Theists and Atheists
  16. Redrawing and publishing the graphics in Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
  17. Special Topic:Das erlösende Wort in dürftigen Zeiten – Wittgensteins Fortschritts-‍, Zivilisations- und Kulturkritik
  18. Einleitung
  19. Text und Kontext
  20. Wozu Philosophie und Kunst in Zeiten der Unkultur?
  21. „[I]‌ch sehe jedes Problem von einem religiösen Standpunkt.”
  22. Wittgensteins „erlösende Worte”
  23. Wittgenstein über die Bildung von Begriffen
  24. Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
  25. David R. Cerbone: Wittgenstein on Realism and Idealism
  26. Peter Eigner: Die Wittgensteins. Geschichte einer unglaublich reichen Familie
  27. Raimundo Henriques: Self-Understanding in the Tractatus and Wittgenstein’s Architecture: From Adolf Loos to the Resolute Reading
  28. Shunichi Takagi, Pascal F. Zambito (eds.): Wittgenstein and Nietzsche
https://doi.org/10.1515/witt-2025-0004

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Inhalt
  3. Titlepages
  4. Titlepages
  5. Articles
  6. Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
  7. Tractarian Nonsense and Literary Language
  8. The Middle Wittgenstein on Aesthetics
  9. The Question of Linguistic Idealism in the Tractatus
  10. Waismann and Waismann’s Wittgenstein
  11. Die Grenzen welcher Sprache?
  12. Wittgenstein on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams
  13. Wittgenstein über die Erkenntnis Anderer
  14. Shouldered In and Out of the Reality of Mortality
  15. On Deep Moral Disagreement Between Theists and Atheists
  16. Redrawing and publishing the graphics in Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
  17. Special Topic:Das erlösende Wort in dürftigen Zeiten – Wittgensteins Fortschritts-‍, Zivilisations- und Kulturkritik
  18. Einleitung
  19. Text und Kontext
  20. Wozu Philosophie und Kunst in Zeiten der Unkultur?
  21. „[I]‌ch sehe jedes Problem von einem religiösen Standpunkt.”
  22. Wittgensteins „erlösende Worte”
  23. Wittgenstein über die Bildung von Begriffen
  24. Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
  25. David R. Cerbone: Wittgenstein on Realism and Idealism
  26. Peter Eigner: Die Wittgensteins. Geschichte einer unglaublich reichen Familie
  27. Raimundo Henriques: Self-Understanding in the Tractatus and Wittgenstein’s Architecture: From Adolf Loos to the Resolute Reading
  28. Shunichi Takagi, Pascal F. Zambito (eds.): Wittgenstein and Nietzsche
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