nchilla / tractatus-tree

A project about reimagining the reading experience of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in different ways. Uses pbellon's scrape of the text (with revisions).

Another Tractatus Tree

About

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a landmark philosophical text composed of propositions in a tree structure (e.g. 2, 2.1, 2.1.1, etc). This website explores different methods of reading and visualizing the Tractatus’ hierarchy, with more or less practical utility. I am not the first to have this idea; you can find a collection of predecessors to my project here. Also, we’re now on FontsInUse!

Publishing information

This project can be viewed in either the Pears/McGuinness English translation or the original German. It uses a JSON version of the text scraped by Pierre Bellon from Kevin C. Klement’s page and adjusted/cleaned by me. The Tractatus< is in the public domain.

Development

This project wouldn't have been possible without the following libraries/plugins: D3.js, Scrollama, Matter.js, matter-dom-plugin, and matter-collision-events.

If you notice any discrepancies with the text please feel free to submit an issue.

Colophon

Body text is set in Signifier by Kris Sowersby; Numbering and logic statements are set in Aktiv Grotesk by Dalton Maag; Header is set in Panama by Roman Gornitsky.

Ideas/to-do:

For Tabs iteration:

• tab markers
• preface access
• header bar
• better indicator for when a prop has children
• mobile navigation
• way to search for props, and URL queries
• some information about the project and translation in header

For Dendrogram iteration:

• A flexible width dendrogram showing you only the nodes and depths that are relevant to the context of the proposition you are reading
• The map redraws itself according to which proposition is focused on screen, using Russell Goldenberg's Scrollama
• Add Preface to text and visualize it somewhere.
• Clicking on a prop's circle should scroll you to its place in the text and redraw the map
• when you hover over a prop, it will expand a horizontal menu showing its children
• mobile navigation
• some information about the project and translation in header

Across the board:

• Add German support
• Finish header and nav
• Find sections missing from the scrape and add them to the JSON. So far I've noticed problems with:
  • missing content:
    • 5.101
  • redraw graphic:
    • 6.36111
  • wrap full expression:
    • 6, 5.5301, 5.525, 5.5301, 5.5351, 5.5352