Wittgenstein
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- Created by: beaw18
- Created on: 31-05-19 11:35
who was Wittgenstein?
- Austrian philosopher from 1889-1951
- influenced the Vienna circle and logical positivism; however he felt as though the circle had misunderstood his ideas
- viewed himself as a religious person
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picture theory
- written in his book 'tracatus logico-philosophus' - believed he had 'completed' philosophy
- argued that language works by creating a picture of reality in someone's mind - e.g 'the cat sat on the mat' creates this picture
- statement can be true or false depending on whether the picture corresponds with reality
- apart from tautologies and mathematical truths, only statements which picture something in your head that can be checked against reality are meaningful
- ethical and religious statements are therefore outside of what we can meaningfully communicate in language
- "whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" - if it can't be pictured, don't speak of it
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difference to logical positivists
- logical positivists considered anything outside of 'meaningful' or factual language was unimportant
- Wittgenstein disagreed and referred to language outside the picture theory as 'the mystical' which cannot be communicated through language
- "Wittgenstein passionately believes that all that really matters in life is precisely what, in his view, we must be silent about" - Engelmen
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later philosophy
- book - 'philosophical investigations'
- some see theory as going against early views, others see it as further development
- now argues that his picture theory as describing only one form of language - the language of natural science
- although a statement may be meaningless in the language of natural science, Wittgenstein now believes language may still be valuable under different forms
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language games
- languge is like a game to Wittgenstein for 2 reasons:
- 1. there are lots of different forms of language, but there is not a single thing all of which have in common
- 2. different forms of language have different rules about what can be said meaningfully
- Wittgenstein refers to forms of language as different games such as:
- scientific language
- the language of jokes
- exclamations
- poetry
- giving orders
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meaning is determined by use
- the meaning of a word is determined by its use within a language
- meaning depends on how it is used within a language game
- example: "thats a great try"
- language game of rugby - positive, achievement
- language game of football - you gave it a go, but didn't succeed
- example: 'ow!' is meaningless in scientific language games, but works in the language games of exclamations
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surface and depth grammar
- surface grammar - the meaning a sentence appears to have at first sight without thinking about the language game
- depth grammar - the meaning of a phrase within the language game
- example: parent says to worried child "everything is going to be fine"
- surface grammar - parent is making a prediction about the future
- depth grammar - not a real prediction, language game of reassurance and comfort. said to make the child feel better
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forms of life
- language games are based on forms of life, or the way in which people live their lives
- different types of community have language games; language games do not need justification as they work with our way of life
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religious language
- religious language can appear meaningless if it is taken in the form of scientific language
- religious language is playing a different type of language game, and is not attempting to make statements of fact about the world
- criticised James Frazwe, writer of The Golden Bough - studied old religious practices and decided religious and magic practices were poor attempts at science
- Wittgenstein disagreed: Frazer believed that when people used voodoo dolls, they really believed it would hurt their enemies. Wittgenstein disagreed, and said this is the way people would express emotions
- The Last Judgement: argued that the belief in the last judgement is not a prediction about what will happen in the future, but rather an expression of commitment to the way Christians live their lives
- religious language overall expresses an emotional attitiude and understanding of life and not a description of how the world is
- religious statements are therefore non cognitive
- Wittgenstein believes we cannot replace religious language with any other language. they are not reducible
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