More than a century after its composition, Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusWittgensteins first masterwork and the only book he published during his lifetimeendures as the definitive modern text on what logic can and cannot do. Since its first English-language publication in 1922, this profoundly enigmatic work has inspired philosophers and non-philosophers alike.
Consisting of 525 hierarchically numbered statements, each one self-evident, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is imbued, as translator Damion Searls writes, with the kind of cryptic grandeur and awe-inspiring opacity we might expectmight wantfrom such an iconic philosopher. Yet earlier translations, in their efforts to excessively copy German phrasing and syntax, range from stilted, even redolently Victorian, to downright impenetrable.
With this new translation and insightful introduction on the language of the book, Searls does justice to Wittgensteins masterpiece, capturing the fluid and forceful prose of the original without sacrificing any of its philosophical rigour. Indeed, in freeing the translation from the grip of the German languagerevisiting, especially, the nouns and impersonal verbs that dont convey in English the precision and intensity of the GermanSearls renders Wittgensteins philosophy clearer and more accessible than ever before.
Featuring a preface by eminent Wittgenstein scholar Marjorie Perloff, this bilingual, facing-page edition promises to become the standard for generations to come.
