Name: ERIVALDO SOARES CERQUEIRA
Publication date: 25/08/2023
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANDRÉ DA SILVA PORTO | Examinador Externo |
| ARTHUR OCTAVIO DE MELO ARAUJO | Presidente |
| LÉO PERUZZO JÚNIOR | Examinador Externo |
Summary: This dissertation deals with Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and emphasizes the problem of final self-refutation manifested in aphorism 6.54. In this aphorism, Wittgenstein points out that whoever understands it must recognize Tractatian propositions as absurd and abandon them in the end. This consequent self-refutation of the work turns out to be part of the
process of elucidating the propositions of the Tractatus. In this dissertation, therefore, the objective is to clarify the dynamics that involves this elucidative process and, with that, to justify in what sense a work, supposedly composed of nonsense can be elucidative. Thus, in the first chapter, a rereading of the Tractatus work is carried out in order to understand its main
concepts and discuss the apparently incongruous aspect of its discourse. In the second chapter, bearing in mind the theme of self-refutation, the debate between the two main interpretative currents of the Tractatus is analyzed: the Standard Reading and the Revisionist Reading. Following the purpose of this dissertation, the emphasis will fall on the ineffable reading of
Peter Hacker and the resolute readings of Cora Diamond and James Conant. According to the ineffabilists, although the Tractatus' propositions are absurd, they convey certain ineffable insights into the nature of reality, thought, and the world. To justify this interpretation, the ineffabilists resort to the distinction between “saying” and “showing”. On the other hand, resolute interpreters believe that in the Tractatus nothing is said or shown; it is simply nonsense that must be abandoned as suggested by Wittgenstein himself. The resolute see the Tractatus as a kind of therapy whose aim is to cure the reader of the illusions arising from the misuse of language. Based on this debate, in the last chapter, from a third alternative line of interpretation,
a certain peculiarity of the Tractatian's discourse will be highlighted, which reveals a “self-explanatory aspect” inherent to the work of the Tractatus. Understanding this aspect can contribute to understanding the elucidative dynamics of the Tractatus and, thus, recognizing that the supposed paradox of final self-refutation is only apparent.
