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Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language: Key Concepts
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This lecture notes discusses the key concepts of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language.
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Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language: Key ConceptsThe main problem that Ludwig Wittgenstein aimed to answer throughout his writings is
that of the nature of language, more specifically, on how language works. Initially, as
reflected in his first major work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein saw
language as a system of communication which reflects the world at varying levels, most
notably at the basic level or the relation of names to objects. This relation became
evident in Wittgenstein's picture relation theory wherein the use and invocation of a
name also imply the invocation or appearance of the object related to that specific
name. With this in mind, Wittgenstein proposed the creation of a language that is
reduced down to this name-object relationship. However, he soon realized that proving
the existence of this sort of language was difficult and in his essays written by the mid-
1930, he came to the conclusion that his initial proposition was incorrect and that his
previous analysis into the nature of language was flawed at best.
In fact, in his second major work, the Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein
showcased concepts and ideas that he himself deemed as a complete contradiction and
rebuttal to the points that he had raised in his first major publication. Language, now for
him, was not a system confined to the rigid calculus that he had created in the Tractatus
but was “a contextual system evaluated and learned against the backdrop of a situation
in which it is used, however social, non-social, structural or non-structural such a
situation or ethnographic environment may be…What Wittgenstein can thus be seen to
argue for is that to seize linguistic meaning requires a prior grasp of its use-governed
machinery.”[1]
Also, within his second work was one of the most significant ideas that he had
forwarded in his later philosophy, namely, his idea of Lebensformen or the "forms of
life." This idea directly links to his second definition of language as Wittgenstein
describes language as something that not only stems from life but is also given meaning
by the former. "To imagine a language is to imagine a form of life," by this, Wittgenstein
shifts away from his more analytic stance and opts for a more socially-centred
understanding of language since the term "forms of life" can be understood to mean not
only biological organisms but also of the culture, practices or customs that are
developed by man and his chosen society. It serves to redefine language as a something
that is not strictly to be understood in psychological facts or in strict rules or abstract
signs.
With this new sort of understanding of language, Wittgenstein came to visualize
language as a city that is ever-dynamic; it is never complete nor in any ultimate form.
, What this implies is that as people and their society change so do the “forms of life” and
with it language. Changes can and have happened and will continue to do so. This
echoes Wittgenstein’s claim that we can never really say that a language is neither
incomplete nor complete.
Additionally, one of the more interesting but commonly overlooked concepts that he
had forwarded in his work is the idea of misunderstanding. This concept declared that
any misgivings, complaints, and doubts as well as any doctrines or thesis that man has
attributed to the nature of reality, knowledge, self, and language are mere
consequences of "motivated misunderstandings of everyday language.” He believes that
this misunderstanding causes us to believe that our everyday language is an inadequate
or insufficient system of communication and that there is a need to look for a better
one. This misunderstanding stems from language itself as he himself described it as a
"labyrinth of paths" and had led him to believe that he can prove the existence of a
primary language in order to address the problems he had seen with everyday language.
He had abandoned this endeavour, of course, as he concludes that it was just a mere
misunderstanding of the “limits of language.”
To remedy this, Wittgenstein began to focus his work in "…turning our whole
examination around." What he means by this is that he aimed to change our perspective
when it comes to language by giving emphasis to the facts of everyday life and the
"ordinary language" which he believes is the language that is the most appropriate and
sensible language. Wittgenstein claimed that our everyday language enjoys an inherent
primacy over other languages seeing as it is the language that we constantly use and
thus contains important but often neglected aspects of human life. It, then, is the only
language that is closest to our own "forms of life." This implies that our ordinary
language is one that is sufficient and "in order" and is inherently superior to other
languages; and that there is no need to construct a new language to override it.
It is in this refocusing of philosophy that his concept of language-games play in.
Language-games, despite the name, do not refer to any game in particular but was
invoked by Wittgenstein to highlight the similarities and dissimilarities between
language and games, which is the fact that they both use rules. Language-games can
best be understood as a conceptual tool that aims to remind people that language is an
activity that uses rules but that for each form of life, there may be more than one
language-game in play. It reminds man that although we speak the same language, we
cannot always use that as the basis for us coming to the same conclusion.
The diversity of human societies, cultures, cliques, and understanding gives way to
numerous forms of life and consequently to numerous language-games, it is to this end
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