Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Published 1921 · 312 pages · 32,991 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Philosophy

How hard is Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to read?

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus scores 32 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
Logical and philosophical terminology.
Sentence structure: 48 out of 100
Abstraction: 78 out of 100
Extreme logical and metaphysical abstraction.
Information density: 68 out of 100
Every proposition is compressed to maximum density.
Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
Numbered propositions. Strictly logical.
Symbolic density: 22 out of 100
Language itself as the central symbol.
Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
The book says what it claims cannot be said.
Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
The silence at the end is the ultimate withholding.
Structural complexity: 32 out of 100
Numbered tree of propositions. Unique structure.

How Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is regarded

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus holds a literary regard score of 73 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Ludwig Wittgenstein