Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Religion

This paper explores the relevance of Wittgenstein’s early work for treatments of religion. The first section briefly outlines some different interpretive possibilities with respect to early Wittgenstein’s thinking. The following section explores the idea that what is important about early Wittgenstein’s work resides not in the meaning of the text as such, but in elements of his Jewish heritage. The third section outlines the immediate task that is undertaken in the body of the TLP. Central notions are those of mysticism and logical form and the two concluding sections explore how these notions play a role in treatments of religion. This they do either by exhibiting parallels between themes in theology and themes in logic, or they do so by playing a role in assessing cosmological arguments in the philosophy of religion.