# 4.031 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

## What happens

Wittgenstein explains that a proposition experimentally puts together a state of affairs, and that the sense of a proposition is equivalent to the state of affairs it represents.

## Themes in this chapter

### Picture Theory of Language

The proposition is described as a model or experimental arrangement of a state of affairs, reflecting the picturing relation.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the propositional theory described in this section.

## Key lines

> In the proposition a state of affairs is, as it were, put together for the sake of experiment.

A proposition is like a trial assembly of a possible situation.

_Wittgenstein uses the metaphor of an experiment to convey that propositions are not merely descriptions but active models._

> One can say, instead of, This proposition has such and such a sense, This proposition represents such and such a state of affairs.

The meaning of a proposition is the situation it depicts.

_This equates the sense of a proposition directly with the state of affairs it represents._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters/4-031
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters