Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

Jeremy schrieb:

> See http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/mapen.html for a nicely presented online
> Tractatus -- the statement in question, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall
>  ist",
> is the first sentence in the the book. Kai, could you offer me any insight
>  about
> sentence 1.2, "Die Welt zerfällt in Tatsachen"? The translation offered is
>  "The
> world divides into facts"; when I initially saw "zerfällt" I thought it might
> mean something less neutral than "divides", like "crumbles" or "deteriorates".


  right, this is less neutral. the verb "zerfallen" comes from the noun   
  "zerfall", which means "decay" or "ruin", in an abstract sense also 
  "decadence". through this formulation one can hear the vibrating terror of 
  ww1, something wittgenstein experienced directly. later adorno, in his   
  "negative dialektik", spoke of a historical "logik des zerfalls". 
  on the other hand, the translation "the world crumbles [- or 
  "deteriorates" or "decays"] into facts" would probably be too strong, taking  
  out the specific ambivalence of the tractatus between mathematics & negative  
  metaphysics ...
                               mondäugig: kai frederik