# 5.101 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

## What happens

Wittgenstein presents a complete schema of truth-functions for two elementary propositions, p and q, listing all sixteen possible combinations of truth-values and their corresponding verbal expressions, from tautology to contradiction, and introduces the concept of truth-grounds.

## Themes in this chapter

### Logic and Tautology

The schema explicitly includes tautology and contradiction as limiting cases of truth-functions.

### Logical Atomism

The analysis of propositions into elementary propositions and their truth-functions exemplifies logical atomism.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the Tractatus, presenting the truth-functional schema.

## Key lines

> Those truth-possibilities of its truth-arguments, which verify the proposition, I shall call its truth-grounds.

The truth-possibilities that make a proposition true are its truth-grounds.

_Definition of truth-grounds in terms of verifying truth-possibilities._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters/5-101
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters