Ludwig Wittgenstein

Abstract

As mentioned in the preceding chapter, Russell has been influenced in his logical atomism by Wittgenstein. There seems, however, to be an important difference between them: whereas Russell includes relations among logical atoms and thus assumes platonistic entities, Wittgenstein apparently refers only to particulars. But neither Wittgenstein nor Russell drew attention to this difference. Our first aim in this chapter will therefore be to establish our interpretation in detail. It will give rise to further questions, viz.: “Why does Wittgenstein nevertheless write ‘aRb’ and not simply ‘ab’?”, and “If there are only names of individuals, how can there be general statements?” ¹