Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes on Truth
Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) develops the picture theory of meaning and a corresponding account of truth: a proposition is a logical picture of a possible state of affairs, and the proposition is true just in case the state of affairs it pictures actually obtains. The Philosophical Investigations (1953) repudiates the picture theory in favor of the analysis of language-games, but the working assumption that truth is to be assessed within the practices of a given language rather than against an extra-linguistic reality remains continuous with the early framework. The late On Certainty develops a hinge-epistemology of bedrock propositions that function not as empirical claims to be tested but as the framework against which testing is possible — extending the broadly anti-foundationalist orientation of the late philosophy.
Quotes
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“The world is everything that is the case.”
Original German: Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist . -
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen. -
“What can be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.”
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen. -
“One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is.”
Journal entry (11 October 1914), p. 10e -
“It is quite impossible for a proposition to state that it itself is true. (4.442)”
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus(1922) | Original German: Ein Satz kann unmöglich von sich selbst aussagen, dass er wahr ist. -
“To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.”
Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951(1993) | Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer 's Golden Bough , p. 119 -
“The truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it; not by someone who still lives in untruthfulness, and does no more than reach out towards it from within untruthfulness.”
Culture and Value(1980) | p. 41e -
“If a false thought is so much as expressed boldly and clearly, a great deal has already been gained.”
Culture and Value(1980) | p. 86e -
“Propositions are truth-functions of elementary propositions. (An elementary proposition is a truth-function of itself.) (5)”
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus(1922) | Original German: Der Satz ist eine Wahrheitsfunktion der Elementarsätze -
“206. If someone asked us 'but is that true?' we might say "yes" to him; and if he demanded grounds we might say "I can't give you any grounds, but if you learn more you too will think the same."”
On Certainty(1969)