«Il lavoro è rigorosamente filosofico e insieme letterario» Note sul Tractatus logico-philosophicus e sulla sua Prefazione

In this essay I compare what Wittgenstein says in his Preface to the Tractatus logico-philosophicus with the suggestions for reading that he gives to Ludwig von Ficker in his letters. In particular, I try to clarify what Wittgenstein means when he writes to von Ficker that his «work is strictly philosophical and, at the same time, literary, but there is no babbling in it» and I try to show that what Wittgenstein says here a von Ficker is an important key to understanding the Tractatus. Against this background I also try to explain what Wittgenstein means when in the Preface he writes that the value of his book consists first of all in the fact «that in it thoughts are expressed». I also wonder in what sense Wittgenstein speaks in the Preface of «thoughts» and their «truth» and how this accords with the use of these notions within the book.