For the uninitiated, some folks think that this small volume written in 1922 is the peak of all logic/philosophy since then. A total purist, he begins the book up as an attempt to artculate clearly EVERYTHING that was knowable (the rest he would remain silent on). A mere 526 very short paragraphs later, he puts his pencil down and he's done.
Unless you already belong to the cult, browse this and don't get too hung up on the logic part (or anything else you can't understand after a few dozen intense readings). Taking a cue from someone who clearly understands this text better than we do (Jonathan Laventhol), you might try to dip into the following sections:
4.11 about the nature of science, philosophy
5.6 about the limits of language; solipsism
6.3 about causality, science as description; what ``natural laws'' are
6.4 about ethics, death, mysticism
6.5 about scepticism; limits of philosophy
7 about when to stop speaking
For the devotees, I apologize for not linking the paragraphs according to their hierarchy and instead choosing a linear format. The tradeoff was burning out your clickwheels along with the frail sanity of the rest of us. Plus, I figured it was more important to those folks that I first focus my effort on including a side-by-side in the original German. UPDATE: I have now included the original GERMAN text.
Download Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (English) (61k)
Download Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (German) (64k)
