The expression 'I' in the Tractatus

Abstract

In the already vast field of works dealing with Wittgenstein's thought, there still is one issue which can be fruitfully tackled, namely the continuity of his thought between the early Tractatus and the later Philosophical Investigations. Having as its aim to clarify this problem, this article purports to show that Wittgenstein's thesis on the non referential status of the deictic expression 'I' was somehow present in the treatment given to the I or metaphysical subject by the first Wittgenstein.