He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.Įlucidations are propositions that include primitive signs, which are explained by means of elucidations. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.Ħ.54 My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them-as steps-to climb up beyond them. Philosophy does not result in ‘philosophical propositions’, but rather in the clarification of propositions. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity.Ī philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. So they can only be understood if the meanings of those signs are already known.Ĥ.112 Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Elucidations are propositions that contain the primitive signs.
‘Elucidation’ appears in the following sections in the Tractatus:ģ.263 The meanings of primitive signs can be explained by means of elucidations.
Despite its importance, interpreters of Wittgenstein have been puzzled with his uses of ‘elucidation.’ It is partly because what he means by elucidations is not clear, partly because his three cases seem inconsistent.
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