Of Princesses, Unicorns, and the British Army

I cannot decide if I like Wittgenstein's set up or not. On the one hand, setting his writing up in numbered steps makes it easier to follow along, but then on the other hand he complicates it by adding multiple sub-steps to each original step, making it hard to keep track of which steps go with each thought. He also seemed to say the same thing (or a very similar thing) in his sub-steps, that were just worded a bit differently than in the original thought.

In his philosophy itself, I also am unsure of how I feel about him, though I'm leaning toward disagreement at this time. In step 3.02 he says, "A thought contains the possibility of the situation of which it is thought. What is thinkable is possible." He goes further in 3.03, writing, "Thought can never be anything illogical, since, if it were, we would have to think illogically." I don't agree with either of those points, because I don't think that whatever is thinkable is possible, nor do I think that thought can never be illogical. Many little girls think about owning a unicorn and being princesses, but that's impossible (the unicorn part for sure, the princess part more often than not), whereas I would guess that in 1774 and before that it seemed pretty illogical to many colonists that they would ever be broken away from the British and under their own rule, and yet it happened (and just thinking about the few colonists going against the British and winning still seems pretty illogical, and yet it happened). Perhaps Wittgenstein meant something different from how I read his words, but until I understand it differently, I just can't agree with him.