Wittgenstein

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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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 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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