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Philosophy of Language & Logic
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1889 – 1951
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
The philosopher who revolutionised philosophy twice. The early Wittgenstein pictured the world as facts; the later Wittgenstein dissolved that picture, arguing meaning is use in a form of life.
Biography
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher, born into one of Vienna's wealthiest families, who gave away his enormous inheritance.
His first masterwork, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), proposed that language pictures the logical structure of the world. Metaphysical, ethical, and religious claims lie beyond the boundary of sense.
Returning to philosophy, he developed a radically different view in the posthumous Philosophical Investigations. Language is not a mirror of reality but a collection of language-games embedded in forms of life. Meaning is use. Philosophy's task is therapeutic: to silence confusion, not produce doctrine.
Important Works
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
1921Language pictures reality; what cannot be said can only be shown; silence is the endpoint.
Philosophical Investigations
1953Language-games, family resemblance, and the private language argument — philosophy as therapy.
Key Takeaways
- Early: language pictures the logical form of facts (Tractatus).
- Later: meaning is use; words have meaning in language-games, not by picturing reality.
- Private language argument: a genuinely private language is impossible.
- Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday — philosophy is therapy.
- Family resemblance: concepts need not share a single defining feature.