“World is the totality of facts, not things.” Discuss.

This statement encapsulates the perspective of logical positivism and, notably, Ludwig Wittgenstein's early philosophy in his work "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus." According to this perspective, the world is not composed of individual things but rather of states of affairs or facts. Wittgenstein argues that the meaning of language is derived from its ability to represent states of affairs, which are combinations of objects in the world.

In this context, a fact is a meaningful proposition that corresponds to a possible state of affairs. The world, then, is the totality of all possible facts. Wittgenstein contends that what can be said about the world is limited to what can be expressed through language, and meaningful propositions must accurately represent possible states of affairs.

This perspective reflects the logical positivist commitment to empirical verification and the rejection of metaphysical claims. By focusing on facts rather than things, Wittgenstein aims to ground philosophy in the empirical observation of the world. However, it is important to note that Wittgenstein later moved away from these ideas in his later work, emphasizing the pragmatic and language-game aspects of philosophy.