Abstract

In my essay, I would like (a) to propose an interpretation of prop. 5.5563 and its function in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; (b) to show that this proposition refers to a motif that is closely linked to the way in which Wittgenstein understood and practised philosophy, as well as to his refusal to assign any theoretical role or commitment to philosophising; and, finally, (c) to argue that this motif already appears in the writings preceding and accompanying the drafting of the Tractatus, and re-emerges in 1929 – precisely the moment when Wittgenstein “officiallyµ returns to philosophy