How theTractatuswas Meant to be Read

Abstract

This paper describes the results of the work of Luciano Bazzocchi on the composition of the Tractatus, and the significance of the numbering system. The method of composition can be inferred from MS 104 (which is not to be confused with the Prototractatus that was constructed from it). The book was constructed as a logical tree, with propositions 1 to 6 as the basic propositions. From these, various branches are constructed as numerical sequences (e.g. 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5). From each of these nodes further branches stem. Bazzocchi demonstrates that the book was not meant to be read linearly (as we all read it), but sequentially. This renders the argument of the book perspicuous, illuminates the anaphoric references, makes clear the dependence of proposition 7 on 6, rather than on 6.54. It shows that the conception of the book as a 526-rung ladder, as suggested by the American Wittgensteinians, is misguided.

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