WittgensteinBy Jamie, Marco, Tom and Brad

The backgroundLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (26 April 1889-26 April 1951)

He was born in Vienna, Austria and died 62 years later in Cambridge, England of prostate cancer

He was born into an extremely wealthy family, with 3 of his brothers committed suicide, he contemplated it also

Brought up as a catholic after his mother converted from Judaism to Catholicism

The youngest of 8 siblings- all of whom spent their childhood and early youth in Austria and all had a private tutor for the first years of tutoring

Following the suicide of his brother, the two youngest brothers were sent to a state school

Following the suicide of another one of his brothers his strict father relaxed and allowed him to do almost as he wished

1908-1910, Ludwig went to Manchester university

In 1911 he started to study at Cambridge university

He left academics several times and served as an officer in world war I- where he was awarded several time for many things including;

His courage

Teaching in schools in remote villages

Where he was controversial as he was known for beating children that made mistakes in mathematics

He also gained commandments for his work in world war II where he worked as a hospital porter in London, however was well known for telling patients not to take their prescribed medication

language

Believed the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

Believed the tools of language were fundamentally simple.

Philosophers had obscured this simplicity by misusing language and asking meaningless questions.

Investigations: “Der Fliege den Ausweg aus dem Fliegenglas zeigen”

This means to show the fly the way out of the fly bottle.

Meaning is use

Words are not defined by reference to the objects they designate, nor by associations we may have in our brains with different objects.

This anthropological perspective contrasts with Plato’s realism.

Meaning and definition

According to Wittgenstein, the meaning of a word presupposes our ability to use it.

He uses the example of the word, “game”, in his investigations and shows that you cant find a viable definition for the word but we don’t need to because we use it correctly.

‘Language Games’

Ludwig Wittgenstein focused on the uses language can be put to and was less concerned with the truth or falsity of language (disagreeing with Logical Positivists).

He argued that words have no objective reference

Language works through a series of ‘language games’

The problems with philosophy occur through the misunderstanding that words can be used in different language

Believed meaning is all about observing convention

Religion may be a ‘language game’

Disadvantage

It could be too relative as it lets any assumptions/claims be equally valid

Not clear whether Wittgenstein thought of religion as a ‘language game’,

It implies that there could be no progress in philosophical debates

Using his theory, language can never truly convey truth in an absolute sense.

Advantages

Capture the essence of what it is to be religious

Not to be philosophical in religion