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Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter

2.171 explained

A picture can represent any reality that shares its form, such as spatial pictures representing spatial realities and colored pictures representing colored realities.

What happens

A picture can represent any reality that shares its form, such as spatial pictures representing spatial realities and colored pictures representing colored realities.

Themes in this chapter

  • Picture Theory of Language

    This proposition directly articulates the core of the picture theory: a picture's form determines the range of reality it can represent.

Key passages

  • The picture can represent every reality whose form it has.

    A picture is capable of depicting any state of affairs that shares its logical or structural form.

    This establishes the scope of representation based on shared form.