Kunal Vora's Key Ideas from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (The original 1922 edition with an introduction by Bertram Russell)
by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Language functions as a picture of reality. Words and propositions are like pictures that represent the facts of the world, and the meaning of language lies in its ability to mirror these facts accurately.

Solipsism – the view that only the self exists while the external world is an illusion – grasps at something true but can't be meaningfully articulated. Solipsism represents the inexpressible nature of self and world – philosophy's task isn't to speak the unspeakable, but to acknowledge language's limits through logical analysis, avoiding profundity, and sticking to what can be stated.

Ideas like karmic causality and universal justice offer only reassuring myths that impose moral order on an underlying reality that’s likely indifferent. They describe statistically useful patterns and project hopeful narratives instead of the purposeless machinery of existence. We imaginatively mythologize order from chaos because the alternative is profoundly unsatisfying. But reality simply is.

There are limits to what can be expressed in language, and some aspects of reality, particularly profound or mystical ones, are beyond the reach of linguistic representation. Our words subtly attest to language's limits by using its logical structure in meaningful ways.