Sunday, March 2, 2014

Logicism and Poetry

In the Investigations, examples from 'ordinary language' help Wittgenstein demonstrate the limitations of the Logistic concept that he advocates in the Tractatus.  But, what might be called 'extraordinary language' can be more effective to that end.  For, one of the main theses of the Tractatus--that Language isomorphically represents its object--is often better exemplified by Poetry than by Logic-adhering Propositions, i. e. via rhythmic and phonetic characteristics that have no place in Logicism.  Indeed, that, for example, 'cacophony' is cacophonous, expresses the achievement of an ideal that seems to exceed Wittgenstein's ambitions, as well as elude Russell's snares--a Word-Object unification that is unhindered by paradoxical self-reference.

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