In the beginning of his philosophical career, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was concerned with analyzing language in order to demystify the misuse of language within metaphysics. The goal was to determine the essence of language – that is, determining how language and the world fit together.
Wittgenstein’s answer for the essence of language was that there is a “logical space” where terms within language connect to the world. In the end, his view was that language referred to things in the world. In his later view, he would argue that this was a narrow view of language because it did not take in the many uses of language.
Language Games and the Search for the Essence of Language
Wittgenstein’s early view was that there can be found a single essence of language – and all languages. In his later view, this single essence of language is abandoned because he examines the use of language. By examining this use, he finds a variety of “models” of language at work, not a single model of language as his earlier view would argue for.
In the early view, language and the world met — or are connected — in a single place, what Wittgenstein calls “logical space.” In his later view, there is not a single place of language but a plurality of places.
To illustrate his view, Wittgenstein employs the concept of “language games.” Although all games are ultimately different, they all have rules, even though the rules themselves are different. In the use of language, there are different rules for the different games that are at play. A language game is, he writes, “language and the action into which it is woven.” Language cannot be abstracted out of its use to generalize about all of language, because the actions, the forms of life that that humans lead, have a variety of meanings.
Is There an Essence of Language Games?
Wittgenstein challenges himself by asking: What is the essence of a language game? What is common to all these activities? He answers, “these phenomena have no one thing in common for which we use the same word for all, but they are related…, and because of this relationship we call them all ‘language’.”
An oncologist talking with patient, an air-traffic controller speaking with a pilot, a judge talking with a defendant, a text message to a friend – these all are different games and are performed for different reasons. Within each game, different rules apply to the use of language, and because of this the terms used have different meanings. Even if the same phrase (“good to go,” for example) was used; its meaning would be different in each game.
Turning Away From the Essence of Language
What is significant for his later view is that Wittgenstein is not looking for the essence of language but how language is used. Thus, there is a turn away from essence to the multiplicity of language in its use. Thus, Wittgenstein’s strategy in his later view is to turn away from looking for an essence of language – the one thing that is common to all – and toward the heterogeneity of language.
Sources:
Canfield, John V. “Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy.” Philosophy of Meaning, Knowledge and Value in the Twentieth Century. Edited by John V. Canfield. London, Routledge, 1999.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford, Blackwell, 1958.
David Jacobs - David C. Jacobs, Ph.D., is a college instructor of Philosophy and a professional writer. He received his B.A. at California State ...
