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Reasoning through the meaning of words

First in an occasional series.

The seventh and last of the propositional sentences that form the backbone of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s 1921 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus states, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” ("Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man schweigen.")

Read literally, the statement forms a tautology. If one litera…