The limits of thought and world in Russell and Wittgenstein

Abstract

In this essay, I will try to compare Russell’s view on the limits of thought and solipsism, especially as presented in “Theory of Knowledge”, to Wittgenstein’s view on the same issues, as presented in his Tractatus logico-philosophicus. In order to do so, I shall divide my work into two sections. Section one is an exposition of Russell’s train of thought, mainly based on James Levine’s account in “Logic and Solipsism” (2013). Section two, in turn, is the attempt to develop a personal interpretation of Wittgenstein’s perspective on the matter, starting from his notion of "object" in the Tractatus