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Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter
3.32 explained
Wittgenstein distinguishes between the sign, which is the perceptible aspect of a symbol, and the symbol itself, which includes its logical significance.
What happens
Wittgenstein distinguishes between the sign, which is the perceptible aspect of a symbol, and the symbol itself, which includes its logical significance.
Themes in this chapter
Limits of Language and Thought
The distinction between sign and symbol touches on how language can be perceived versus how it carries logical meaning.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Wittgenstein
Author of the proposition distinguishing sign from symbol.
Key passages
“The sign is the part of the symbol perceptible by the senses.”
A sign is the sensory aspect of a symbol, what we can see or hear.
Clarifies the relationship between the physical mark or sound and its logical role.