Wittgenstein & Language Games

WHO was Wittgenstein?

Ludwig Wittgenstein was a Vienna-born 20th-century philosopher, one who was concerned primarily with logic and philosophy.  In 1911, he moved to Cambridge to study the branch of logical thinking under Bertrand Russell.  He was an anti-realist.

TRACTATUS (1921)

Wittgenstein considered the relationship of language to the world and how philosophical problems often arise from misunderstandings of language.  He argued that philosophical problems were generated by linguistic confusion, but supposed such problems could be solved by paying close attention to how language is used.

Wittgenstein argued that the purpose of language was to enable us to represent the world, and eventually concluded that...

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent."

ONE LANGUAGE

Initially, Wittgenstein thought that all philosophical problems could be solved by recognising one common language.  He argued that confusion in philosophy arose from people having different perspectives, e.g. like gestalt images...

He thought that if people recognised only a scientific language everything could be tested empirically to determine meaningfulness.                                           

LANGUAGE GAMES

In Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein changed his views and concluded that...

• The meaning of words is in their use;
• The function the words perform is agreed by the particular group/society using them

He argued that language…