Ted new

PHIL 3032

Picture Theory(draft 2)

Name: Ted Wang Xiao

Student ID: 101446018

May. 2, 2012

Picture theory

Fact Part

In this part, I will explain what a fact is.

First of all, facts are things which are truly exist in the world. Wittgenstein says, “The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts.”(1.11), and that is to say, facts are all the true statements about the world. For example, if I say, “the water can be drunk”, it is a fact because we always drink water when we are thirsty, and it is something true. But if I say, “people drink oil when they are thirsty”, it is not a fact.Because we never drink oil so it is a false statement. Now let’s put it into a model. If “x is y” is true then it is a fact; and if “x is y”is false then it is not a fact. Just as Wittgenstein says, the world is combined by facts, so facts should be things or statements that are true and logical. But maybe you have notice that facts are not the most basic things, so what are facts come from? Now I will explain the composition of facts, objects.

“Objects make up the substance of the world.”(2.021), Wittgenstein says. What is substance? They are the most basic things, or they are things what are something made of. So in another word, objects combine facts as the most basic things. “Subjects are simple.”(2.02), that is to say they cannot be combined and they are to the opposite of complex. Still use people’s drink as an example. In these two statements, “water” and “oil” are objects, because they are the basic thing in that sentence. If “water” is an object, then “water can be drunk” is a fact. But if I say “people can drink water when they are thirsty but they cannot drink oil because oil

cannot be drunk”, what is it?

It will become the states of affairs. Wittgenstein says, “A state of affairs is a combination of objects.”(2.01). and as we have already know that objects are also the composition of facts, so what is the relationship between facts and states of affairs? A s I say above, if I say “people drink water when they are thirsty”, it is a fact; but if I say “people will drink water when they are thirsty and they will never drink oil” is a state of affairs. That is to say, if “x is y” is a fact, “p is q” is also a fa ct, when we put them toge ther as “x is y + p is q = true” it will become a state of affairs.

Now I’m going to make an example to show the relationship between objects, facts, stares of affairs and the world. If we regard the world as a tall building, objects will be the cements, facts will be the bricks, and states of affairs will be rooms in this building. That is to say, objects combine facts, facts combine states of affairs, and if the states of affairs are true, it will combine the world.

Picture Part

Now I’m going to explain what is a picture.

I think maybe in a degree, pictures are the photos of reality. That means pictures show out what is in realty and they are “a model of reality”(2.12) as Wittgenstein says. That is to say, maybe things in picture are not just as the same as things in real world, but they must have some forms, which are the same as real things. For example, when we draw a sun as a picture, we cannot draw the san as the same size as it is, because the real sun is too big. We usually draw a circle on the top of the picture to express the sun is shining in the sky. We can say the circle is the model of the sun, and the picture is the model of reality.

What’s more, Wittgenstein says, “What constitutes a picture is that its elements rel ated to one another in a determinate way.”(2.14). That means, the organization of the picture should also from the reality. For example, we can draw a picture of the sky with a bright sun and some white clouds, because if it is a beautiful weather, the sky may look like that. But we cannot draw the sun with stars in the sky, because we can’t see stars at daytime. Furthermore, we can find pictures have correct and incorrect types. If we can find the content of the picture in the world it will be a correct picture; but if we cannot find it in the world at the present time, it will be an incorrect picture. For example, if there is a pig in the picture it is a correct picture; and if there is a big with wings in the picture it will be an incorrect picture, because we have never seen a flying pig in our real world. But Wittgenstein says, “Every picture is at the same time a logical one.”(2.182). That is to say, no matter the pictures are correct or incorrect, they are all logical pictures. Because even though we have not see flying pigs until now, but we cannot say we will not able to see them in the future.

And how can we find out whether the picture is true or false? The only way is to experience it. Wittgenstein says “It is impossible to tell form the picture alone whether it is true or false”

(2.224), he also says “There are no picture that are true a priori” (2.225). That means we cannot say a picture is correct or incorrect without experience it. Just like, if I say candies are sweet, you cannot say it is true or false unless you taste it. Come to the pictures, if there’s a picture of a forest which the color of the trees are blue, you will say it is an incorrect picture, because we have never seen blue trees before; and in some other situation, such as the trees are yellow or red, we cannot say they are incorrect, because we have experienced that trees will become yellow or red in fall.