PEIRCE TO STRAWSON elements of these thoughts deep in the mind, and the atomic objects that constitute the essence of the world How these correlations are made we are not told: it is a mysterious process which, it seems, each of us must manage for himself, creating as it were a private language Having expounded the picture theory of the proposition and the worldstructure that goes with it, Wittgenstein shows how propositions of various kinds are to be analysed into combinations of atomic pictures Science consists of propositions whose truth-value is determined by the truthvalues of the atomic propositions from which they are built up Logic consists of tautologies, that is to say, complex propositions that are true no matter what the truth-value of their constituent propositions Not all propositions are capable of analysis into atomic propositions: there are some that reveal themselves as pseudo-propositions Among these are propositions of ethics and theology So too, it turns out, are the propositions of philosophy, including those of the Tractatus itself The Tractatus, like other metaphysical treatises, tries to describe the logical form of the world; but this is something that cannot be done A picture must be independent of what it pictures; it must be capable of being a false picture no less than a true one But since any proposition must contain the logical form of the world, it cannot picture it What the metaphysician attempts to say cannot be said, but only shown The paragraphs of the Tractatus are like a ladder that must be climbed and then kicked away if we are to see the world aright Philosophy is not a theory, but an activity, the activity of clarifying non-philosophical propositions Once clarified, the propositions will mirror the logical form of the world and thus show what the philosopher wishes to, but cannot, say Neither science nor philosophy can show us the meaning of life But this does not mean that a problem is left unsolved Doubt can exist only where a question exists, a question only when an answer exists, and an answer only where something can be said We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched Of course there are then no questions left, and this itself is the answer The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of this problem (TLP 6.5–6.521) Even if one could believe in immortality, it would not confer meaning on life; nothing is solved by surviving for ever An eternal life would be as 57