From Theory to Mysticism

This book focuses on the main constituent of the Bild theory of sentences in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus: the term ‘object’. One of the things that attracts the reader of the Tractatus is that while there is use of the notion ‘object’, the notion is not specified. This book explains: (a) why the term ‘object’ in the Tractatus is unclear; (b) what difficulties and problems result because of this lack of clarity in the Tractatus; (c) why the term ‘object’ might be left unclear on purpose; and (d) how the paradoxical Tractatus continues functioning in a certain way. Having in mind all of the above, this book introduces the idea of a movement from a theory of language towards a kind of mysticism. It will appeal to scholars interested in the philosophy of language and more specifically in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.