Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
T3.31
, I call any part of a proposition that characterises its sense an expression (or symbol)
(A proposition is itself an expression)
Everything essential to their sense that propositions can have in common with one another
is an expression.
An expression is the mark of 'a form' and 'a content'.
T4.03,
A proposition must use old expressions to communicate a new sense.
A proposition communicates a situation to us, and so it must be essentially connected with
the situation.
And the connection is precisely that it is its logical picture.
A proposition states something only in so far as it is a picture.
T4.22,
An elementary proposition consists of names. It is a nexus, a concatenation, of names.
T4.221
, It is obvious that the analysis of propositions must bring us to elementary
propositions, which consist of names in immediate combination.
This raises the question how such combination into propositions comes about.
T5.135
, There is no possible way of making an inference from the existence of one situation
to the existence of another, entirely different situation.
This notion of meaning being related to its use rather than just reference is also
discussed in his next great work the Philosophical Investigations 43-60 (Wittgenstein
1953
).
These states of affairs, in turn, are complexes that finally end up as compound
statements whose ultimate referent in computing is the bit. For example, in computer
languages we may have seven bits of the ASCII code identifying 1000001 as the
character A and 1000010 as the character B, etc. There are also special characters
such as 'delete' 1111111 and 'start' 0000001.
Here the bit is the mechanical equivalent of Wittgenstein's referent objects. The
bit, if taken as a detectable distinction, has all the strange properties of Wittgenstein's
object. For example, a world cannot exist (or at least be detectable) unless it contains
at least one distinction. A 'bit' is a concept that can only be embodied in a distinction.
A particular 'bit' is an argument place.
•
T2.0131
, A spatial object must be situated in infinite space. (A spatial point is an
argument place.) A speck in the visual field, though it need not be red, must have
a colour: it is, so to speak, surrounded by colour-space. Notes must have s
ome
pitch; objects of the sense of touch
some
degree of hardness, and so on.
Further, it is at the bit that the program links to the world and has meaning. It is
this meaning that allows the program to have “sense” with respect to the computer.
This formal semantics and the ability for programmers to create procedures and sub-
routines (sub-propositions or expressions) is the primary characteristic of all high
level and assembler programming languages.
The consequence of such a formal model is that any set of signs can be used in
a program to represent a proposition. All that is necessary is that there is a formal
definition that gives the sign meaning within the program in terms of the proposition
it represents. Since a proposition can take on an infinite number of forms through the
use of tautologies and other formal equivalences then there is an infinite but bounded
set of possible organisations that can be adopted for a program. Such a set is bounded
by the meaning of the term 'essential program'. An essential program is a theoretical
idea and refers to the base or minimum program. However, the additional adopted
