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Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most famous philosophers of the Twentieth Century; perhaps due in large part to his interesting life and quirky personality - if you want read about this then I can recommend the book Wittgenstein’s Poker by David Edmonds and John Eidinow which Chronicles a now famous argument between Wittgenstein and Karl Popper at Cambridge - it also goes through his life story very well. Alternatively this article in Philosophy Now by Mark Cain is also a good summary of his life and intellectual significance (or insignificance as Kain Argues!).
As Kain says; Wittgenstein only published one work during his lifetime, Tractatus in 1921 and other than that we have some 20,000 pages of notes and abstracts. So he did not "officially" write a great deal - however he was inspirational to others who took on his ideas and so are “Wittgensteinian” in their philosophy.
One of the main themes of Tractatus, as set out in the introduction was the idea that “What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.” (Page 23). So it was that Wittgenstein initially asserted that the only language with meaning was the language of science, language that referred to empirical reality, language that mirrored the world as sensed. He based his ideas of Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell and influenced members of the Vienna Circle in the 1920 and especially AJ Ayer who went on to propose the Verification Principle. This is Wittgenstein’s first major area of influence as he set off the debate about the purpose of language and the meaninglessness of Religious Language.
As Kain says; Wittgenstein only published one work during his lifetime, Tractatus in 1921 and other than that we have some 20,000 pages of notes and abstracts. So he did not "officially" write a great deal - however he was inspirational to others who took on his ideas and so are “Wittgensteinian” in their philosophy.
One of the main themes of Tractatus, as set out in the introduction was the idea that “What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.” (Page 23). So it was that Wittgenstein initially asserted that the only language with meaning was the language of science, language that referred to empirical reality, language that mirrored the world as sensed. He based his ideas of Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell and influenced members of the Vienna Circle in the 1920 and especially AJ Ayer who went on to propose the Verification Principle. This is Wittgenstein’s first major area of influence as he set off the debate about the purpose of language and the meaninglessness of Religious Language.
The other major impact I am going to discuss was towards the end of his life when he changed his mind about language; these ideas are collected in the posthumously published Philosophical Investigations - a large part of this work was nearly published by Wittgenstein in 1946 but he withdrew it - it was eventually published in 1953 by his editors including Elizabeth Anscombe.
In Philosophical Investigations he proposed that language is always bound by the context in which it is spoken/written and that philosophical problems arise when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed. This is often called the theory of “language games”, which he arrived at (supposedly) after having attended a football match. Wittgenstein observed that just like games such as football and Rugby, language operates according to rules. Just as football players understand the offside trap and Rugby players understand rucks and mauls, so religious people understand the language of religion. Not only this, but Wittgenstein said that language has a meaning for the people in those particular language games (or contexts of use).
In Philosophical Investigations he proposed that language is always bound by the context in which it is spoken/written and that philosophical problems arise when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed. This is often called the theory of “language games”, which he arrived at (supposedly) after having attended a football match. Wittgenstein observed that just like games such as football and Rugby, language operates according to rules. Just as football players understand the offside trap and Rugby players understand rucks and mauls, so religious people understand the language of religion. Not only this, but Wittgenstein said that language has a meaning for the people in those particular language games (or contexts of use).
This theory has been very influential and fits into a philosophical movement that prefers something called the coherence theory of truth. The coherence theory of truth states that human knowledge is made up of a broad spread of statements about the world, that can be imagined like a patchwork quilt. A statement is true if it fits in with other statements about the world i.e. it can be ‘stitched in’ to the patchwork quilt; a statement coheres with other statements. For example, if I claim that I have just flown from London to Edinburgh by flapping my arms, you would test the truth of that statement by trying to ‘stitch it in’ to other statements you know to be true about the world.
People who follow the coherence theory are often called pragmatists and reject something called the correspondence theory of truth, which states that language is only meaningful if it directly corresponds to facts about the world, that is, language should mirror life. Wittgenstein and the pragmatists (or New Wittgensteinians) that followed him were more interested in how language was used as a way of judging its meaning, rather than looking at what it corresponds to or mirrors. Wittgenstein influenced thinkers to be confident that there was meaning to religious or moral language and so allowed Philosophy to continue to develop these discussions over the next 65 years.
Wittgenstein may be famous predominantly due to his interesting life and not as important conceptually as other thinkers of his era, however he did play a very important role in inspiring debate about the meaningfulness of religious language and then helping the subject to move on afterwards. He died in 1951 aged 62 and influenced many others such as Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Rudolf Carnap, Alan Turing, G.E.M. Anscombe, Peter Geach, Anthony Kenny, Gilbert Ryle, and John Searle.
People who follow the coherence theory are often called pragmatists and reject something called the correspondence theory of truth, which states that language is only meaningful if it directly corresponds to facts about the world, that is, language should mirror life. Wittgenstein and the pragmatists (or New Wittgensteinians) that followed him were more interested in how language was used as a way of judging its meaning, rather than looking at what it corresponds to or mirrors. Wittgenstein influenced thinkers to be confident that there was meaning to religious or moral language and so allowed Philosophy to continue to develop these discussions over the next 65 years.
Wittgenstein may be famous predominantly due to his interesting life and not as important conceptually as other thinkers of his era, however he did play a very important role in inspiring debate about the meaningfulness of religious language and then helping the subject to move on afterwards. He died in 1951 aged 62 and influenced many others such as Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Rudolf Carnap, Alan Turing, G.E.M. Anscombe, Peter Geach, Anthony Kenny, Gilbert Ryle, and John Searle.
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