# 5.541 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

## What happens

Wittgenstein examines psychological propositions such as 'A thinks that p is the case,' noting that they superficially appear to represent a relation between a subject and a proposition. He criticizes the modern epistemological treatment of these propositions by Russell and Moore, which conceives them as relational.

## Themes in this chapter

### Critique of Traditional Philosophy

Wittgenstein challenges the relational interpretation of psychological propositions prevalent in modern epistemology.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the Tractatus, presenting his critique of psychological proposition forms.

### Bertrand Russell

Mentioned as a modern epistemologist who conceives psychological propositions relationally.

## Key lines

> At first sight it appears as if there were also a different way in which one proposition could occur in another. Especially in certain propositional forms of psychology, like “ A thinks, that p is the case,” or “ A thinks p ”, etc. Here it appears superficially as if the proposition p stood to the object A in a kind of relation.

It initially seems that a proposition can be embedded within another in a special way, particularly in psychological statements such as 'A thinks that p is true' or 'A thinks p,' where it looks like p is related to A.

_Wittgenstein identifies the superficial appearance of a relation between a thinking subject and a proposition._

> (And in modern epistemology (Russell, Moore, etc. ) those propositions have been conceived in this way.)

Contemporary epistemologists like Russell and Moore have indeed interpreted these psychological propositions as expressing a relation between a subject and a proposition.

_Wittgenstein references Russell and Moore as proponents of the relational view he is critiquing._

## Links

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