Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Lecture 11, Wittgenstein's Tractatus, of UGS 303, Ideas of the Twentieth Century, at the University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2013. This class is part of a section of the course on ideas of the 1920s. @PhiloofAlexandria

[claumeister]

This professor is such a treat. Enthusiasm for his material, a desire to convey it to his students, an interest in his students’ questions, and a lively sense of humor. What else could one ask for from one’s education ?

[WeAreShowboat]

Professor Bonevac, your lectures are art. While some professors stifle life in a lecture hall, you are creating beautiful wonderful amazing stimulating pieces of life and humanity. Your students better be grateful for being able to experience your gift in person. Your joy of life is contagious and the best gift you can offer anyone. Thank you for sharing it. Keep the videos coming!

[jaredmay]

That dude who keeps saying 'yes...' 'mmhmm...' knowingly after the prof. mentions any kind of opinion about Wittgenstein or his work... Anyone who has ever registered for a liberal arts class is familiar with that dude. I thought I had escaped him forever. I was wrong.

[BUSeixas]

The lecture is great. The students were loud

[MexTexican]

I’d love to see his picture of the cat drinking water. It’s so cute the way Professor Bonevac talks about having studied art in college. He is an absolute treasure. So intelligent, patient, enthusiastic, learned and good natured.

[jeremybray]

Thank you so much for putting all of this material on Youtube. I have learnt so much from watching your presentations. Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you and Godspeed,

[javierfernandez]

It would be great if you could connect a short range microphone to you shirt so it passes only your voice and not the sound of the students. Great Lecture and thanks very much!

[AlienCardKid]

Keep them coming, I have watched a number of your lectures and I find them extremely stimulating. Material demands didn't allow me to study philosophy at university level it has always been a purely personal endeavour and your lectures are very helpful, thanks for sharing

[DaylenAmell]

Thank you dear professor. This is a wonderful presentation.

[philipdubuque]

I enjoyed this presentation. As a general introduction to the philosophy of Wittgenstein it works pretty well. That said, if you read the notes taken by Friedrich Waismann during Wittgenstein's talk to the Vienna Circle its obvious that he was recycling his 1929 Lecture on Ethics - the text of which I read a few times a year just to keep myself honest. Its hard to imagine Wittgenstein being more transparent about his ultimate aims. I read Wittgenstein and David Hume for the "pure research" as it were. I read Darwin for the "applied science". My guilty pleasure (there... you dragged it out of me), is reading Rudolf Carnap and taking his assertions at face value. My sense is that those of us who enjoy Wittgenstein each latch on to some point or other and spend years taking a deep dive into its more profound implications. For me that would be his definition of logical space, "logischen Raum " (C.K. Ogden). Well done Professor Bonevac! Your lecture is impactful and provocative.

[christianconner]

I love your lectures! What a joy that you've uploaded them for laymen!

[anngianotti]

Lecture is very helpful! The professor is great! Thank you for posting!

[bryson]

@33:45 "What can't be said can't be hinted at either."
That's a very simplistic response which likely came from a simplistic interpretation.
Let's look at is this way. The world is hinting itself at us; it does not tell us facts about its metaphysical essence: it only presents itself. It's like we're staring at a cracked door our whole lives, so that we know that there is something behind it, but we'll never know the true essence of what lies beyond

[rgaleny]

Genius is the ability to put into effect that which is your mind.

[mulanszechuansauceisthemeaning]

Thank you for this lecture. Btw, the end was also incredible: "so, there's silence. *end*"

[ebenizisiktikmi]

The lecturer has an energy. This is important.

[CarlosSantos-fsjn]

it looks like he is teaching a group of 13th century farmers affected by the plague, who is the one always coughing!

[autisticberserker]

Correspondence theory: When is a sentence or a thought true - when there is a corresponding fact.
YES!

[differous]

Thank you for sharing this.

I've only just discovered Wittgenstein and I'm trying to get to grips with it. This is very helpful (and I think you deserve better attention from the people talking off camera)..

You say at 25:15 that what the fans are cheering is not likely to be a description of the world; but are the singular and collective responses not descriptive?
If I hear crowd responses on the TV from another room, I know that SOMETHING significant is going on, even if the detail is lacking.

One certainly knows when a goal has been scored, but also when one has almost been scored, and so on.

I think this would come under 'phatic' expressions, as opposed to 'emphatic', the substructure of language which we share with other primates.

I'm guessing Wittgenstein was primarily concerned with written language, rather than phatic expression, but I need not guess that you understood what I just wrote because:

1. we share cultures with team sports and fans
and
2. we are equally likely to have heard the equivalent sounds made by Chimps and Bonobos. Even if that were not so, we might equally agree [on other grounds like the study of Darwin or the study of our pets] that our common ancestry has wired us with both the expression and the understanding of the phatic.

I watched another video on Wittgenstein in which he claimed that he could not know the mind of a dog. Did he change his mind on that subject?

[oddthomas]

Thank you, no other video explained it so simply.