EN
In 1931, when writing about those who had inspired him, Wittgenstein singled out Boltzmann; nobody seems to know why, however. Most commentators have ignored this remark, while a few have tried to guess what the inspiration might have been by searching the popular and philosophical writings of Boltzmann. In this article, I hypothesize that Wittgenstein may have been inspired by Boltzmann’s scientific research program from his famous 1877 article. This hypothesis is not confirmed-or rejected-by any surviving documents. But to some extent (considering the role of Fleck’s creative misunderstandings) there are two explanations for the origins of the two strange theorems underlying the Tractatus’s ontology: (1) each situation can be the case or not the case while everything else remains the same; (2) the facts are not subject to the laws of nature. My hypothesis also makes it understandable why Wittgenstein developed his logical theory of probability. So, let’s keep it in mind.