Talk:Translating Wittgenstein

I never looked at the German before. Why are so many words capitalized in the German versions? If I put "satz" through an online translator and it comes out as "sentence". It seems like only a subset of sentences are propositions. Is there a pair of German words that makes the distinction that "sentence" and "proposition" make in English?

Altavista translator: proposition --> Angelegenheit --> affair

picture --> Abbildung --> illustration  There is a meaning of "picture" that is like "mental image" rather than a printed illustration. I have always assumed that it is in that sense that Wittgenstein was talking about a "picture".

How are "Bild" and "Bilder" related to "Abbildung"? Do any of these words make a distinction between a printed illustration and a mental image of something?

Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz. --> The thought is the meaningful sentence. --> Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz.

The thought is the significant proposition. --> Der Gedanke ist die bedeutende Angelegenheit. --> The thought is the important affair. --> Der Gedanke ist die wichtige Angelegenheit.

What is sinnvoll? Meaningfully?

"the significant proposition" does not make sense in English. I am tempted to think it should be something like, "The thought is the meaning of the proposition."

--JWSchmidt 17:23, 15 Aug 2005 (UTC)

All German nouns are capatalized. --Collingsworth 03:01, 9 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Sachverhalt
Barry Smith translates "Sachverhalt" as "state of affairs" in his article that is mostly on Brentano. My wife (who is German and studied philosophy) said that "proposition" would be the translation she would usually use, in particular in application to the Tractatus. Where does the suggestion of atomicity come from?

Ref: B. Smith, 1989. Logic and the Sachverhalt, The Monist 72(1):52-69.) --- Charles Stewart 22 Nov 2005