“ Mechanics determine a form of description by saying: All propositions in the description of the world must be obtained in a given way from a number of given propositions—the mechanical axioms. ”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). copy citation
Author | Ludwig Wittgenstein |
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Source | Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus |
Topic | description proposition |
Date | 1921 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by C. K. Ogden |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5740/5740-pdf.pdf |
Context
“It can happen that the description would have been simpler with the aid of a triangular mesh; that is to say we might have described the surface more accurately with a triangular, and coarser, than with the finer square mesh, or vice versa, and so on. To the different networks correspond different systems of describing the world. Mechanics determine a form of description by saying: All propositions in the description of the world must be obtained in a given way from a number of given propositions—the mechanical axioms. It thus provides the bricks for building the edifice of science, and says: Whatever building thou wouldst erect, thou shalt construct it in some manner with these bricks and these alone. (As with the system of numbers one must be able to write down any arbitrary number, so with the system of mechanics one must be able to write down any arbitrary physical proposition.)”
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