Anscombe on the Tractatus

Abstract

Setting the scene for the discussion she rehearses familiar doctrines from the Tractatus. A significant sentence is an arrangement of names of simple objects, or a truth function of such. This arrangement is called the structure of the sentence, structure being associated with actuality. The possibility of such a structure occurring is calledform. Thus the form of representation of a sentence is the possibility that the simple objects named by the names in the sentence, can have the same arrangement as those names. The arrangement doesn't actually have to be the same between names and objects. When they are the same there is a true sentence, when they are not there is a false, but nevertheless meaningful sentence. If the common form (possibility) were not shared between sentence and fact, then there would be no possibility of having a meaningful sentence (whether true or false). Thus the standard way to read the Tractatus is that propositions are logical pictures of facts. The elements of propositions stand for the elements of the fact pictured. The picturing occurs through isomorphism of the