Ludwig Wittgenstein "Philosophical Investigations"

Wittgenstein and the Beauty of Language Argument

Language simply grows. This beautiful argument, hidden in the text in section 43 of Philosophical Investigations, says that “the meaning of a word is its use in the language.” This idea directly contradicts Bertrand Russell’s claim that the use of a word stems from its meaning, and it can be a confusing distinction. Fortunately, Wittgenstein gives many examples of the elasticity of language, and provides a metaphor when discussing the importance of the notation of chemistry or math. Using his prodding, unassuming questioning style, he asks if our language was truly a complete language before those advances in chemical understanding by comparing language to a town where the newly developed aspects are the suburbs. He claims that language is an ancient city with twists and turns, architecture from many different periods, and developing neighborhoods (8 section 18). This contradicts Russell’s claim that a language is the system of relationships between the word and the world, because it shows language as more than just definitions. Wittgenstein demonstrates this to the reader through his example of the word ‘game.’ In our use of the word, it can mean anything from a board game or sports game to children skipping in a circle singing “ring a ring o’ roses.” Any definition of the word ‘game’ could cover part of the spectrum of what we call games, but any way we define it something we comfortably classify as a game would be left out. This shows that language and words describe rather than define, and that the understanding of a language stems from more than just limited definitions of individual words. This paints language as a beautiful, ever-changing, impressionable mold of a culture and history, which to me opens up the idea of language rather than limits it.

However his argument for the organic growth of language does not provide an opportunity for anyone to re-imagine a language, and this is where the discussion of language enters the hallways of St. Paul Academy. Over the past couple weeks the student body has engaged in a discussion of racism and ‘reverse-racism,’ which many argue has turned into a discussion of semantics. The flippant rebuttal of “Now we’re just arguing semantics” insults the essence of the initial question, which asked if the centuries of racism in the English-speaking world, specifically the United States, play into our understanding of the word ‘racism.’ Based on reading the first hundred sections in Philosophical Investigations I believe that reverse-racism is impossible, because when we consider a word we have to look to the use of that word in a language. Due to the historical as well as current racism in our country that systematically oppresses people of color and gives advantages to white people in every aspect of life, we can’t significantly argue that negative prejudices against whites is a form of racism. Perhaps the argument is based on semantics, but the accepted understanding of semantics—the specific logical or linguistic meaning—is vital to human communication.

Like SPA students, philosophers often try to define too much, and Wittgenstein tries to counter that tendency in his philosophical reasoning. He exposes how the meaning of a word comes after adoption into use, rather than the other way around, and claims that most philosophical problems that philosophers have spent centuries contemplating are simply misunderstandings of language in the original idea. While I do not know if I appreciate what could be the proposal of an end to philosophy, this interesting method in approaching philosophical reasoning opens up the analytic spectrum, which allows for more discourse. This kind of revolutionary thought benefits philosophy as it tries to progress and move forward from some of the classic viewpoints of ancient Greek philosophy, which I think ultimately benefits the field of philosophy as new ideas add new perspective.

Wittgenstein: a Revolutionary Twice Over

During an era of endings and new beginnings, one man revolutionized philosophical understanding twice during the twentieth century with contradicting philosophies. Born in Vienna in the late 1800s, Ludwig Wittgenstein witnessed the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the birth of the modernist movement before contributing to the revolution of ideas himself with his views on the role of language in philosophy. His two opposing texts both changed the study of philosophy by creating a new method of requiring criteria, though with two different proposals for criteria. The implications of Wittgenstein’s new perspectives have led to the logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy schools of philosophy, both of which contributed to the analytic method that revolutionized philosophy in the early 20th century.

Wittgenstein’s linguistic analyses shaped the philosophical world because of his role in founding analytic philosophy through his philosophy of language. Analytic philosophy employs the use of language analysis and logic in making arguments. Wittgenstein helped establish this field along with Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege, as his two different philosophies of language provided methods for analysis based on language (Glock 439). The philosophy of language seeks to understand the relationship between language and meaning, as well as the meaning of sentences composed of words that have specific meanings. Before philosophers can use logic and language to claim meaning in their arguments, they must understand the role of language in their reality. Wittgenstein helps with this, as his works aimed to uncover the meaning of language through the examination of grammar. His first work, Tractatus, suggests that language and therefore reality have a strict, logical structure (the text works to define that structure), and that philosophical questions usually stem from a misunderstanding of that limitation. This critiqued the contemplation of philosophy by clearly limiting its capabilities through language. However during the 1920s he questioned that original work, resulting in Philosophical Investigations, which works to show a lack of clear definitions in language. It suggests that language describes rather than explains through a dialog-like questioning of the reader. He expressed this by writing: “…’meaning’ can be described as thus: the meaning of a word is its use in a language” (1967 Wittgenstein 20). This idea not only contradicts his original work, but promotes the idea that language is fluid and malleable. It also reinforces the idea that language can only describe, not explain, through the concept that language reflects the world rather than defines it. This invalidates many fields of philosophical study in the pursuit of an explanation of the world, though the importance of description should not be ignored as many rules that some regard as explanations (such as the rules of physics) can simply be regarded as descriptions of the world; a necessary role. Wittgenstein’s explorations in the relationship between meaning and language provide ways to begin analytic philosophical investigation through grammar. This changed the realm of linguistic analysis as it diverged from the Russell’s word/world view and Frege’s distinction of sense and reference, providing a fresh outlook for analytical philosophers.

Within analytic philosophy, Wittgenstein had a significant influence on a specific school of philosophy: logical positivism. The new method of linguistic analysis proposed with Wittgenstein’s Tractatus that allowed for proven philosophical arguments versus nonsensical ones based on language created the philosophical movement known as logical positivism. As a part of analytic philosophy, logical positivism required a verification of philosophical claims through logical or empirical arguments. The criterion for this verification was taken from Tractatus, and Wittgenstein inspired a school of philosophy that has had influences in our world since, including in the legal field. The legal ramifications for judges in looking at the criterion for verification of claims has sparked discussion within the field, opening up debate about ethical practice and moral obligation (Morawetz). This school of philosophy directly impacts the practices of professionals in many fields as it inspired philosophers such as A. J. Ayer to further explore the ideas and bring them into the English-speaking sphere.

Similar to Tractatus, Philosophical Investigations had an impact on the philosophical world, but through a different branch of analytic philosophy. Ordinary language philosophy simply argues that philosophical problems stem from philosophers misusing language, but differs from logical positivism in that the concern in linguistic analysis is the use of the words in language rather than some criteria for their coherence (Xenakis). This pragmatic approach to language, looking at the meaning in terms of what works based on the use of the word, adds to the syntactic and semantic understandings of language by “[considering] its concrete uses” (Conant 52). This limits the use of language in validating philosophical arguments based on the understanding of those words in the context of the language instead of purely on syntactic analysis. The ultimate goal of eliminating the philosophical problems that exist due to misunderstanding in the language is furthered by this fluid interpretation of language because it eliminates the realm of personal interpretation that philosophers can stumble into. Though that limits the possibilities of philosophy, it improves the integrity by demanding linguistic accountability of philosophers, ideally eliminating philosophical misunderstandings entirely.

The result of the expansion of methods in assessing philosophy is that the field can build on the traditional philosophies in a new way. This new field has dominated the philosophical realm over the past century and led to the renaissance of post-linguistic metaphysics as philosophers respond to and build on Wittgenstein’s ideas (Preston). The furthering of arguments through innovations in the philosophical realm should remain vital to the field as new perspectives enrich the old. That spirit of inquiry is at the heart of philosophical endeavors, and Wittgenstein contributed significantly to the world of philosophy in his writings on linguistic philosophy.

Annotated Works Consulted

Conant, James. "Stanley Cavell’s Wittgenstein." The Harvard Review of Philosophy 13.1 (2005):

51-65. Division of the Humanities: University of Chicago. The Harvard Review of

Philosophy. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/>.

As a published author who teaches at UChicago and writes for the Harvard Review of Philosophy, James Conant is a reliable source for looking at philosophy. This source provided the majority of the analysis of ordinary language philosophy, which provided the significance of Philosophical Investigations in this paper.

Glock, Hans-Johann. "Was Wittgenstein an Analytic Philosopher?" Metaphilosophy 35.4 (2004):

419-44. EbscoHost. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. <http://web.b.ebscohost.com>.

This analytical article from the Metaphilosophy journal outlined the importance of Wittgenstein’s work in the field of analytic philosophy. It argued his status as an analytic philosopher and came to the resolution that he was one of the founders of the philosophy, supporting my claims of his significance in that field. This article also provided valuable insight into the complexity of interpreting Wittgenstein and all the disagreement that has surrounded that pursuit.

Irvine, Andrew David, "Bertrand Russell", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter

2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/russell/>.

This encyclopedia entry gave background on Bertrand Russell who was an influential figure in Wittgenstein’s life as well as another founder of analytic philosophy. This paper alluded to the significance of Russell’s writing on Wittgenstein’s philosophical viewpoint.

Hacking, Ian, 1975: Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?, Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

The article from the university Wittgenstein is most closely associated with analyzes the significance of the philosophy of language in general.

Morawetz, Thomas. "Understanding Disagreement, the Root Issue of Jurisprudence: Applying

Wittgenstein to Positivism, Critical Theory, and Judging."University of Pennsylvania

Law Review 141.2 (1992): 371-456. JSTOR. Web. 12 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org>.

This source provided analysis for the paper in looking at the current significance of logical positivism in the legal field, specifically judging in court.

Preston, Aaron. "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Web. 16 Nov. 2014. http://www.iep.utm.edu/analytic/

This source gave a summary of the historical events in the evolution of philosophy throughout the 20th century, while drawing on the significance of certain schools of philosophy including logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy. The author, Aaron Preston, is a professor of philosophy at Valparaiso University.

Reck, Erich H. From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy. Oxford:

Oxford UP, 2002. Online, philpapers.org.

This article gave more background on the relationship between Wittgenstein and the other great analytic philosophers of the early 20th century and Wittgenstein’s role in the analytic philosophy movement.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1967a. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M.

Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell. Originally published in 1953.

The original text made personal analysis possible as well as the understanding of widely accepted general analysis of Wittgenstein's perspectives. Due to the complexity and density of the text, general research was necessary in understanding many points. However, the original text provided many of the arguments (though generally not in the form of arguments) that my analysis of the significance considered, especially in the first paragraph (though some of the interpretation and relationship to analytic philosophy came from a multitude of background sources for understanding his arguments). The text was invaluable in the understanding of the arguments as well as the fresh perspective on my understanding of language.

Wittgenstein, L. 1961. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by B. McGuinness and D.

Pears. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Originally published in 1921.

Though I did not read much of this source, I became familiar with the arguments outlined in it through my research. The book itself was one of the two texts I used to examine the significance of Wittgenstein’s work.

Xenakis, Jason. "Ordinary-language Philosophy: Language, Logic and

Philosophy." Synthese 11.3 (1959): 294-306. JSTOR. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

<www.jstor.org>.

This article provided a background of ordinary language philosophy and its connection to Wittgenstein which is part of my argument of his impact.

Zalta, Edward N., "Gottlob Frege", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014

Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =

<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/frege/>.

This encyclopedia entry gave a background on Gottlob Frege whose works and role in analytic philosophy were referenced in the paper.