[fantod]

> My understanding is the Tractatus was meant to "end philosophy" by implying that most of philosophy arises from the confusion between these grammatical artifacts and reality.

Apologies in advance as I haven't read any Wittgenstein myself, but am I wrong in thinking this is what the Philosophical Investigations was about (as opposed to the Tractatus)?

[mabub24]

The relationship between the arguments in Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations (PI) is quite complex and, while there is some disagreement over the the degree of his renunciation, it's generally understood that by the time of his writing much of the notebooks that ended up as PI Wittgenstein had altered his understanding of philosophy and language quite a bit.

Both had a sort of "end philosophy" ambition, to a degree. The Tractatus, with its ambition to address the ways that language touches the world in a picture theory, was more akin to the idea of "solving" philosophy in a sense. In PI, he makes a change in his view of philosophy towards anthropology and remarks on language that is rooted in behavior and use. PI "ends philosophy" more in the sense of dissolving philosophical issues, by revealing the conceptual underpinnings of a number of philosophical debates as nonsense. Philosophy's job, thus, becomes conceptual clarification.

So to answer your question, yes, though there is some overlap.

[klik99]

Well put, "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." is a call to cut through the crap of philosophy, rather than to end it. Whatever differences there may or may not have been, no one can deny they were both incredibly ambitious.

[jhrmnn]

In Investigations Wittgenstein realized that he went perhaps too far in Tractatus, and that words can be meaningful also “by consensus” not only “from first principles”.