Wittgenstein

    Cards (5)

    • Language is meaningful to people who participate in the same game.
      In his book 'Philosophical Investigations' Wittgenstein argued that the meaning of a word is in its function in the language. Words have a variety of uses, like a tool box. They all serve to do different things.
      There are many ways in which language is used, Wittgenstein lists functions of language such as giving order, making jokes, stories, describing something etc.
    • Language is meaningful to people who participate in the language game
      Each different function of language is a different language game. For example, labelling items which is a primitive language game we learn as a child, to correspond an item with a word.
    • Logical positivism
      Fails to capture the complexity of language, it treats all language as though it is for the same purpose: Identifying facts, where the real meaning of language can be understood by unwritten rules. Logical Positivism and Religious language are both language games.
    • Different Games
      The use of language is part of an activity or a form of life that set out how language is used.
      Forms of life are contingent upon culture and context. For example, a rugby players form of life would be movement on a rugby pitch and their understanding of a 'game' is different to that of a chess players, their form of life is inside at a table.
      If you are immersed in this form of life then you can understand the game.
      • There are similarities between games, but not all games share the same features. Language games show a familienahnlichkeit (a family resemblance).
      • There is nothing that all games have in common, but there is an overlapping relationship. However, they cannot be defined in one way.
      • It is possible to learn other language games and participate in more than one.
      • Cannot be a private language because language is a communal activity, therefore not everything meaningful because it is necessary for the rules of the game to be understood by others.