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I'd encourage everyone who's a fan of Wittgenstein to try reading Spinoza's "Ethics". Wittgenstein's Tractatus is basically just a rehash of the first half of t
by logicchains 5y ago
I'd encourage everyone who's a fan of Wittgenstein to try reading Spinoza's "Ethics". Wittgenstein's Tractatus is basically just a rehash of the first half of that, but with the language updated to use a modern logical formalism. I.e. the words are different but the actual definitions given and structure of the argument are very similar. Wittgenstein even alludes to this in the name Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, as Spinoza had another work titled Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.
Unfortunately it seems Wittgenstein didn't understand (or chose to reject) the second half of the treatise he borrowed from (which very roughly is "given this model of the world/ethics, a model of emotion, and a model of emotion as a function of the world/ethics, what doesn't it make sense to feel?"), and didn't live a happy life.
- thwave 5y agoThere's a very interesting comparison to be made between Wittgenstein and Spinoza, but saying something like "basically just a rehash" completely missed the point. Saying that Spinoza is "just a rehash" of Stoic ideas is a bit more correct, and still not very interesting outside of a very specified discussion. The title "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" was not Wittgenstein's idea, but Moore's.