Public Reason: Vol. 13, No. 2, 2021 & Vol. 14, No. 1, 2022
Truth-Functional Logic and the Form of a Tractarian Proposition
Oliver Thomas Spinney

Abstract. In this paper I argue against Michael Morris’ claim, that the Tractatus view involves holding that the possibility of truth-functional combination is prior to the possibility for sentential constituents to combine with one another. I provide an alternative interpretation in which I deny the presence of any distinction in the Tractatus between these two possibilities. I then turn to Adrian Moore’s ‘disjunctivist’ account of sentencehood, itself inspired by the Tractatus view. I argue that Moore’s account need not involve a commitment to the kind of priority Morris describes, and that it need not involve a commitment to transcendental idealism. 

 

Key words: Wittgenstein, Tractatus, truth-functional logic, propositions, sentences. 

Citation

Spinney, Oliver Thomas. 2022. Truth-Functional Logic and the Form of a Tractarian Proposition. Public Reason 14 (1): 101-105.