Names, like little points
Propositions, point at things:
Because they have sense.

Between Logical Atomism and the Picture Theory of Language, there really seems to be a robust ontology developing in the Tractatus.

1. 1.Facts are made up of States Of Affairs.
2. 2.States of Affairs are made up of named objects

and

1. 1.Names refer to objects.
2. 2.Propositions have sense of facts.

Propositions are models (or, a loosely defined “picture”) of facts. They hold the same logical form. Neither is reliant on the actuality (for lack of a better word) of any object or SoA for it to have meaning.

To muck it up a bit, the model itself is a fact whose meaning is that it has a certain structure. Which seems a bit self-referential.

An expression of a proposition (i.e. a sentence) is a model of that proposition; it maps out the structure of names. It is a fact that consists of whatever arbitrary states of affairs the proposition it represents points to. The sentence is a projection of the expression.

The expression of a proposition has the form it does because it necessarily must: if it does not share the same logical form as the fact it points at, then it is illogical.

The elements of a pictures must be connected with objects. Schroeder notes that “this connection is not intrinsic in words.” The act of ‘thinking out’ the sense of a proposition, gives a sentence a sense. It becomes an expressed thought, which is a proposition.

Hopefully, this analogy works:

An Actor:A video recording of an actor :: A Proposition:A Sentence

It’s a broken analogy because the video recording cannot be used to recreate (bring to life) the actor. Vincent Price is, and will remain, dead. But a sentence can be used to project and ‘think out’ a proposition.

Thoughts are pictures, organized in the same logical form as the fact they have sense of.

So thoughts are pictures
mirroring the form they sense
and they make Hulk smash

Also, everyone should listen to The 21st Century Monads while they study:

Related posts:

1. Wittgenstein & Me: A Love Story, Part III
2. Wittgenstein & Me: A Love Story, Part I
3. People don’t like these “facts” you speak of, please refer to them as “educated opinions”
4. I really do love my family, though.
5. Language and Thought