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Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus · Chapter
4.4661 explained
Tautology and contradiction involve combinations of signs, but these relations are meaningless and unessential to the symbol.
What happens
Tautology and contradiction involve combinations of signs, but these relations are meaningless and unessential to the symbol.
Themes in this chapter
Nonsense and Meaning
The relations between signs in tautology and contradiction are described as meaningless, highlighting the boundary between sense and nonsense.
Key passages
“Of course the signs are also combined with one another in the tautology and contradiction, i.e. they stand in relations to one another, but these relations are meaningless, unessential to the symbol.”
In tautology and contradiction, signs are indeed combined, but these combinations have no meaning and are not essential to what the symbol represents.
Clarifies that the logical relations in tautologies and contradictions do not contribute to meaningful content.