On the Treatment of Solipsism in Ludwig Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus"

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light upon Wittgenstein's treatment of solipsism in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The present work provides a historically informed interpretation of the Tractatus as an ethically-motivated text written in a critical, broadly Kantian spirit; it investigates secondary literature on the topic of solipsism in Wittgenstein's early philosophy; and it argues the early Wittgenstein was a solipsist, but that Tractarian solipsism is of a rather peculiar character. It is maintained that Tractarian solipsism derives its peculiarity from Wittgenstein's notion of the metaphysical subject of solipsism. The thesis makes a case for identifying such a subject with "logical space" (when the subject is viewed from the linguistic perspective) and God (when the subject is viewed from an ethical point of view.)