# 6.374 explained — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

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

## What happens

Wittgenstein argues that there is no logical connection between the will and the world; even if all wishes were fulfilled, it would be a matter of fate, not logic, and any physical connection cannot be willed.

## Themes in this chapter

### Ethics and the Mystical

The discussion of fate and the absence of a logical guarantee between will and world touches on ethical and mystical themes about the limits of meaning.

## Character check-ins

### Mr. Wittgenstein

Author of the proposition, presenting the argument about the lack of logical connection between will and world.

## Key lines

> Even if everything we wished were to happen, this would only be, so to speak, a favour of fate, for there is no logical connection between will and world, which would guarantee this, and the assumed physical connection itself we could not again will.

Even if all our desires came true, it would be a matter of luck, not logic, because no logical link ensures that our will affects the world; and any physical link we might imagine cannot itself be an object of will.

_Clarifies the distinction between logical necessity and contingent physical causation._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters/6-374
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tractatus_logico_philosophicus_se/chapters