# 5.542 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

## What happens

Wittgenstein argues that propositional attitudes such as belief, thought, and speech are not relations between a subject and a fact, but rather involve a coordination of facts through their objects, reducing 'A believes p' to the form ''p' says p'.

## Themes in this chapter

### Logical Atomism

The coordination of facts through objects reflects the atomistic decomposition of propositions.

### Limits of Language and Thought

The analysis shows that belief and thought are not about a subject-object relation but are internal to the logical form of language.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the Tractatus, presenting the analysis of propositional attitudes.

## Key lines

> But it is clear that “ A believes that p ,” “ A thinks p ,” “ A says p ,” are of the form “ ‘ p ’ says p ”: and here we have no coordination of a fact and an object, but a coordination of facts by means of a coordination of their objects.

Statements like 'A believes p' or 'A says p' actually have the logical structure ''p' says p', meaning they involve a relation between facts (the proposition and the state of affairs) rather than between a person and an object.

_Wittgenstein dissolves the traditional subject-predicate analysis of belief and thought into a purely logical coordination of facts._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters/5-542
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters