# 2.161 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

> Chapter companion for Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.

## What happens

Wittgenstein asserts that for a picture to represent something, there must be an identity of form shared between the picture and what it depicts.

## Themes in this chapter

### Picture Theory of Language

This proposition directly articulates the necessary condition for representation in the picture theory.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the proposition

## Key lines

> In the picture and the pictured there must be something identical in order that the one can be a picture of the other at all.

A representation and its subject must share a common structure or form for the representation to be possible.

_Identifies the condition of pictorial representation_

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters/2-161
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters