Abstract

The metaphysics of "simple" objects and the syntactic theory of "expressions (Ausdrücke)" can be seen as theoretical foundations of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logicophilosophicus. I shall show in this paper how these two doctrines result from his struggling with Russell's theory of types, and establish the early Wittgenstein's basic idea that structural (formal) features of language mirror structural (formal) features of the world. In order to do so, I will trace the basic line of Wittgenstein's thought back to the pre-Tractatus period.