Thursday, December 5, 2013

Language and Constructivism

According to the Tractatus concept of it, Language isomorphically pictures the World.  However, Wittgenstein is generally no more than vague about how that principle applies to the relation between the internal structure of a Proposition and the elements of the state-of-affairs to which it corresponds, beginning with the combined yet sharply distinguished Subject and Predicate.  For example, that distinction is not immediately evident in the event that 'John is running' typically describes.  It is, therefore, in that regard that #4.0131, "In the proposition a state of affairs is . . . put together", is briefly illuminating, for it suggests that a Proposition incorporates a combination of Analysis and Synthesis that is analogous to the operation of the Understanding in Kant's theory.  Hence, the passage expresses a concept of Language that can be similarly dubbed as 'Constructivist'.  That is not to make the stronger claim that such processes likewise immediately affect the Fact to which a Proposition corresponds,  But, they can influence both how it is interpreted, and conduct towards it, e. g. 'John' can be abstracted from the event of running, and associated with an earlier robbery at a nearby jewelry store.

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