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Situational Formal Ontology of the Tractatus
Natan Berber
Abstract.
This paper discusses the
Boolean algebraic axiomatic system of situations suggested by the Polish
logician Roman Suszko (1919-1979). The paper will specifically examine
the adequacy of the axioms, definitions and theorems of Suszko’s system
as a model for Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus. It will be shown how the formal properties of
Suszko’s system – the atomicity and completeness of the Boolean
algebraic system – can be employed in order to clarify key concepts of
the situational part of the Tractarian ontology. After considering the
formal reconstruction of the Tractarian concepts of the world and
logical space, a controversial issue pertaining to necessary facts in
the Tractatus will be addressed. This will be followed by a
formal clarification of the Tractarian concepts of logical place and
possible worlds, the latter being identified as combinations of states
of affairs, which are, according to the Tractarian ontology, the
simplest kinds of situations.
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