Dialectic Of The Ladder: Wittgenstein, The 'tractatus' And Modernism

Despite almost a century of exegesis, Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) remains one of the most enigmatic works of 20th century thought. Questions about the book's form, its philosophical themes, and the nature of the author's aims and methods continue to be fiercely debated. This study aims to show how new and revealing light can be cast upon these questions by looking at theTractatus in the aesthetic, cultural and historical contexts of modernity and modernism. Drawing upon continental philosophy, critical and literary theory, and the history of ideas, the book challenges conventional readings of Wittgenstein's early work. It demonstrates how theTractatus can be examined alongside narratives of progress and enlightenment, as well and explores how it actively engages with the linguistic and aesthetic ideologies of literary modernism. Importantly, the study also contends that the Tractatus is not simply a text which emerges out of the author's attempt to work through the influence of his philosophical predecessors (Frege, Russell et al.) ?rather, it is to be grasped as an experimental and dialectical work which invites the reader to radically rethink questions of language, ethics, agency and subjectivity, as well as the relationship between the philosophical and the literary. By elucidating the Tractatus in the contexts of modernity and modernism, Dialectic of the Ladder provides unique insights into Wittgenstein's early masterpiece, developing challenging suggestions regarding its enduring historical, ethical and political significances.

• • Author: Ben Ware
• • Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• • Publication Date: Aug 27, 2015
• • Number of Pages: 240 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Hardcover
• • ISBN-10: 1472591402
• • ISBN-13: 9781472591401