ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein argues in his "Lecture on Ethics" that ethical statements, although in some way significant, are logically nonsense. Wittgenstein's pronouncement about ethical statements, and the analysis which leads to it, bears similarities to his claim at the end of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus that the propositions it contains are nonsense. This paper examines the argument in the "Lecture on Ethics" in order to better understand what Wittgenstein means by "nonsense," and suggests that his views about ethical statements bear directly upon his reasons for declaring that the Tractatus itself is nonsense.