Wittgenstein and the contemplative theory of meaning. Observations on the thesis of Juan Abugattas

Abstract

This paper consists in a critical lecture on Peruvian philosopher Juan Abugattás’s interpretation about “contemplative theory” from Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (TLP) by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Particularly, it is responsible for reviewing Abugattás’s bachelor thesis where he says that the Tractatus’s theory of meaning is replace with the use theory of meaning in later Wittgenstein’s work. The central purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the Tractatus’s theory of meaning is not a simple “contemplative theory” like Abugattás say, and also that the theory of meaning of Philosophische Bemerkungen (Ph. B. ) still keeps the Tractatus ́s point about how we can use the language to know the world. In both cases, I maintain that the Tractatus’s theory of meaning try to be a response to linguistic critic from Mauthner and its consequences in knowledge aspect.