What Is Wittgenstein's Arguments Against Private Language

Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who lived from 1889 to 1951. Although he did not intend for his book Philosophical Investigations to be published, it provided some new revelations for the modern philosophical debate. In these writings, he is famous for arguing against private language which he describes as “immediate private sensations” that are known only to a particular man himself (Solomon 613). Not only did he provide a huge breakthrough for the field of philosophy, he also was the first modern philosopher to believe that language and ideas are not divorced from the world in any way. Furthermore, he breaks the precedent set by Descartes, Hume, Locke, and even his teacher Russell in the aspect of private and divorced …show more content…
The way Wittgenstein explains this argument against private language is through what he calls language games. This refers to the idea that one is not able to classify a game under one idea or adjective. Checkers and chess may adhere to a single set of rules laid out in a rule book where one player goes after the other player, but in sports such as football and baseball, one does not wait for another player to complete his or her turn and adhere to a strict set of guidelines that is consistent in every round. After making the reference of language and games, Wittgenstein then provides another example of his meaning. He mentions that as there are various meanings and definitions of the word “game” as there are various relationships between family members. Wittgenstein titles this the Family Resemblance Concept in which there are many similarities among family members but one is unable to provide a rigid definition of what they are seeing. This relates to the idea that words and language cannot be shaped and have a strict