In the closing passages of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein makes two claims which, although they are consequences of both the semantic theory and the notion of philosophy which that book contains, seem in conflict. In the first remark, Wittgenstein writes.

In the closing passages of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein makes two claims which, although they are consequences of both the semantic theory and the notion of philosophy which that book contains, seem in conflict. In the first remark, Wittgenstein writes.

Pulling up the Ladder discusses how Wittgenstein's early philosophy became widely known largely through the efforts of Russell and other empirically-minded British philosophers, and to a lesser extent, the scientifically-oriented German-speaking philosophers of the Vienna Circle. However, Wittgenstein's primary philosophical concerns arose in a far different context, and failure to grasp this has led to many misunderstandings of the Tractatus. From Brockhaus' investigation of that context and its problems emerges this new interpretation of Wittgenstein's early thought, which also affords fresh (...) insights into the later Wittgenstein. (shrink)

This paper surveys the literature on m singer's book "generalization in ethics", And focuses on a problem not previously discussed: the significance of the "ceteris paribus" clause. Previous literature has pointed out the problem involved in singer's collective use of the term 'everyone', But the precise nature of the difficulty is not made clear until the issue of the ceteris paribus clause is considered. We argue that singer's argument cannot be useful in moral deliberation, Because it is not possible to (...) isolate on a particular individual who has an obligation, To see if one's own case is similar. (shrink)