Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s 1921 masterpiece, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, defends no theory of normative ethics, no ethical system on a par with, say, utilitarianism and deontology. Nor does it offer any metaethical theory comparable to emotivism, cognitivism, or moral realism, though in a sense we may consider its ethical remarks “metaethical”. They elucidate what ethics is or means, that is, how ethics structures the ways we relate to the world. Even in the absence of any explicit “ethics of the Tractatus”, understanding Wittgenstein’s conception of the relation between language and reality, as well as the underlying account of subjectivity and the self, is crucial for appreciating what it means to adopt an ethical stance.