On the Austere Conception of Nonsense

The Tractatus is a book that presents a dilemma to
its reader. The dilemma can be described briefly in the
following manner: what is written in the Tractatus will
appear possible to understand to a careful reader. But at
the end of the book, in 6.54, the author declares that "his
propositions� are to be recognized as nonsensical. The
reader who thinks that he has reached a reasonable
understanding of the Tractatus is thus left with the
realization that he has in fact failed in his attempts to do
so. Put in an even more compact manner: although the
Tractatus might seem possible to understand, we are not
supposed to be able to, according to its author. One way of
dealing with the dilemma is to try to make nonsense into
something more than just plain nonsense. It can be done
by amending the ordinary meaning of the term "nonsense�
in such a way that understanding and gaining insight from
the nonsense of the Tractatus does not represent any
direct conflict with Wittgenstein"s statement in 6.54.