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Single Idea 6563

[from 'Notebooks 1914-1916' by Ludwig Wittgenstein, in 5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 2. Logical Connectives / a. Logical connectives ]

Full Idea

Wittgenstein's 'fundamental idea' is that the 'and' and 'not' which guarantee the truth of "not p and not-p" are meaningful, but do not get their meaning by representing or standing for or referring to some kind of entity; they are non-referring terms.

Gist of Idea

'And' and 'not' are non-referring terms, which do not represent anything

Source

report of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Notebooks 1914-1916 [1915], §37) by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.1

Book Reference

Fogelin,Robert: 'Walking the Tightrope of Reason' [OUP 2004], p.28


A Reaction

Wittgenstein then defines the terms using truth tables, to show what they do, rather than what they stand for. This seems to me to be a candidate for the single most important idea in the history of the philosophy of logic.