Outside The Language: On The Metaphysical Nature Of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus

Ludwig Wittgenstein is the most famous Austrian-born English philosopher in the20thcentury, and he is also one of the representatives of early Analytic Philosophy. Harrisrecognizes Wittgenstein and Saussure as the two most important persons who have greatlyinfluenced modern linguistics, and he calls Wittgenstein the most influential and encyclopedicphilosopher. There are three periods of the development of Wittgenstein’s thoughts: the earlystage, the transition period and the later stage. In the early stage, Wittgenstein criticizesordinary language and holds an opinion of ideal language. The transition period is the periodWittgenstein’s thoughts shift to the later stage. In the later stage, Wittgenstein shifts his focus toordinary language. Tractatus is the representative work of Wittgenstein in the early stage, and tounderstand Wittgenstein’s earlier thoughts is helpful to understand his later thoughts.In academe, the logic analysis of Tractatus is valued and the ethic nature of the book isneglected. Many scholars haven’t realized the real purpose of the book, and they seldom thinkabout the outside world and the reason why the unsayable part is unsayable. Besides, somequestions remain unsolved, such as, what is the unsayable part? What a kind of inspiration itcan give to language and linguistics? Though people know that language and the world have thesame structure, they don’t clearly understand the range of linguistics. This paper tries to provethat Tractatus is a pure metaphysical work and explains Wittgenstein’s overall knowledge of theworld and his search for the real important values. Besides, through a research on the sources ofWittgenstein’s thoughts, this paper illustrates the reason why the unsayable is unsayable andexplains what the unsayable part is about. Furthermore, the paper discusses in what ways the“Mystical Field” can be hinted. In the meantime, limits of language show out and the absolutetruths, beauty and goodness can’t be expressed by language, for language can only describe theinside world, that is the natural science world. This paper is helpful for people’s furtherunderstanding of the nature of language and the relationship between language and the worldand helps people know the range of language and learn that nothing can be expressed by peopleoutside the world. Through the paper’s discussion of the sayable and the unsayable, the papercan offer some profound philosophical inspiration to the understanding of language andlinguistics, and it can provide a basis for the study of the transition of Wittgenstein’s thoughts.Through analyzing Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and other notes and letters, this paper tries toanswer the three questions:1) What is the real theme of Tractatus？2) What’s the relationshipbetween the sayable and the unsayable? Why the unsayable part is unsayable?3) What’s theunsayable part about? In what ways can people attempt to express it? Most people knowWittgenstein as an analytic philosopher, because they misunderstand the real theme of the book, so does Wittgenstein’s teacher Russell. Although Wittgenstein is cherished as sacred by Viennaschool, he is discontented with Vienna School’s focus on logic analysis and ignoring theunsayable part. Vienna School misunderstand the real theme of the book, they even claim thatmetaphysics should be expelled out of philosophy, however, the metaphysical world is whatWittgenstein pursues all through his life. Tractatus is divided into two parts: the sayable partand the unsayable part. About the unsayable part, Wittgenstein hints only with one sentence:“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”(7) The paper first talks about thesayable part, which is also the whole book talks about. In this part, this paper analyzes the eightconcepts: the name, the elementary proposition, the proposition, language, the object, theatomic fact, the fact and the world, and we can get a conclusion that language has the samestructure with the world. As facts in the world are accidental, a fact can happen and can nothappen, and the world is composed of facts, so a conclusion can be arrived that the world isincidental and it could be like this or that, so that there is no significance or meaning in it. Themeaning exists outside the world, namely in the unsayable part. Because there are no symbolsoutside the world, so we can not talk about them. In this sense, we say there is no meaningoutside the world. However, the meaningless of the outside world doesn’t mean it is notimportant, on the contrary, this part is very important; it is the nucleus of Tractatus. AsWittgenstein does not say much about the unsayable part, so this paper first analyzes thesources of his mystical thoughts. After this, the paper illustrates the four unsayable categories inTractatus. At last, the paper discusses the possible ways to express the unsayable that is byshowing, Feng Youlan’s negative method and Zhuangzi’s fables and goblet words. InWittgenstein’s opinion, the logic analysis of the world is a ladder to the “Mystical Field”; thereal purpose of logic analysis of the world is trying to break down the boundary of language,and reaching the metaphysical world to pursue the absolute value, beauty and goodness. In sucha search, the limits of language and the world are marked. Language and thought can onlydescribe the things inside the world, and the outside world can never be touched. Even naturalscience can solve all the questions inside the world; the questions about the meaning of life cannever get any answer. People can only try to understand the unsayable things through thepossible ways to express the mystical.