When1: 1914
When2: 1951
Who: Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein [Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann]
What: philosopher
Where: Germany/England
works\ Tractatus Logico-philosophicus [1921]; Blue and Brown Books [1933 to 1935]; Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics [1937 to 1944]; Culture and Value [1950]; On Certainty [1951]; Philosophical Investigations [1951]
Detail: He lived 1889 to 1951 and was analytic philosopher.
Epistemology
Truth is about facts, not objects.
Propositions about metaphysics, ethics, religion, aesthetics, logic, propositions, and essences cannot state truth. They have no meaning, because they are about things with variable meanings. Philosophy goals are to describe and to increase understanding.
One thing is tautologically identical to itself, but two different things cannot be identical, and so identity cannot be relation {paradox of identity, Wittgenstein} {identity paradox, Wittgenstein}. Identity actually conjoins two propositions.
Models of reality need as many elements and relations as reality. Proposition sets can have as many elements and relations as reality and can model reality {picture theory of meaning, Wittgenstein}.
Actual language expresses mind's thoughts and intentions. Language description can clarify language usage. Language is not about experience. Grammar specifies how to use words {grammatical proposition}, not how world is. Language cannot explain thought structures or rules or prove them true or self-evident. No argument or appeal to other authority can prove the basic forms or ideas used in human activity or show they are self-evident. In all human activities, such as thinking, solving problems, or using language, people can distinguish correct from incorrect performance based solely on activity, not on verbal criteria or principles.
Mathematics is a rule system for using transformations and relations to produce new values or statements. Fundamental logic and mathematics forms and ideas are about nature of thought. Logical propositions are tautological rules. Logical forms cannot have name or description and are inherent in reality. Language alone can reveal them.
He described language game, family resemblance, and private language [Wittgenstein, 1953].
Language can be for shared social situations. People can agree about word meaning used in social situations, because they apply same words to same social situations and they realize they do so. The culture maintains social situations and so preserves word meaning. Meaning must be constant to allow people to communicate with others and themselves over time. Using language of social situations, people can communicate about what happens in minds, because same social situations shape mental images of perception words.
Sentences about emotions or sense qualities refer to internal things. Sentences about perceptual or physical phenomena name public reference object. Sentences about pain and anger are only about mental phenomena and have no physical object but still have public criteria through shared social situations and have constant meaning.
Like words, sentences have contingencies or applications that make them true and meaningful {truth-condition, Wittgenstein}. Using correct sentence structure determines truth and meaning, by determining truth-conditions. Truth and meaning do not depend on underlying thoughts. Mind can only assent to, dissent from, or abstain from thinking about sentences and applications.
Factual statements are the most-common statements, and conditions that make factual statements true are the best-understood statements. People judge other statement types in reference to factual statements, using assimilation or contrast. Factual statements represent the physical world but can also represent alternative possible worlds. Factual statement represents image. Factual statements should have same abstract form as the fact reported. Factual statements can express everything that people can say and so limit what people can imagine or conceive. Factual statement has sense. The sense of factual statements is what makes them true. Scrambled factual messages have no sense and are meaningless. Factual statements are truth assertions, because sense is about truth. Other statement types do not have sense but still can have meaning, by revealing physical-world or human-life features.
Things people do or use can rest on doing and thinking methods and so are not knowledge or truth but are all there is. Mind does not have or follow definitions, templates, principles, or rules. Mind interprets what to do and applies behaviors and language in particular situations. Definitions, templates, principles, rules, and understanding follow from ability to apply word to situation. Templates are not accessible to others, so people cannot know meaning. Templates typically do not precisely conform to situations, so meaning is not clear or true. Templates can change without person or others being aware of change. Templates can be wrong.
Interpretation is verbal and so itself can have interpretation. "If you can say, here is one hand, we'll grant you all the rest."
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Date Modified: 2022.0224