A Companion to Wittgenstein's Tractatus

"It is one of the merits of Max Black's companion to the Tractatus that he emphasizes the continuity of Wittgenstein's philosophical development by frequent quotation from his later writings."--New York Review of Books

"Black's book is, in effect, two books in one, and each of them is very good. First, there is the useful companion to the Tractatus: the store of information that anyone who picked up the Tractatus would want to have. Second, there are the interpretive essays: always judicious, frequently illuminating. It is hard to see how this book could have been more complete."--Philosophical Books

One of the unquestioned philosophical masterpieces of modern times is Ludwig Wittgensteinís Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. It is a work of extreme compression. Within a compass of twenty thousand words, and in cryptic and elliptical sentences, Wittgenstein writes of the nature of the universe, the essence of language, the foundations of logic and mathematics, theories of probability, new ideas about philosophical method, and the work of Russell and Frege. He also makes scattered comments about the philosophy of science, ethics, religion, and mysticism. Inasmuch as Wittgenstein found it difficult, if not distasteful, to force philosophical thoughts and insights into a linear deductive order, a serious need for students is a collocation of scattered passages and a close com­mentary on the text. Both are provided in this brilliant study by a distinguished philosopher

The late Max Black was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Human Letters at Cornell University and President of the International Institute of Philosophy. His other books include Language and Philosophy and The Labyrinth of Language.