Ludwig Wittgenstein

1
Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Life and Language

2
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

• Key points about Wittgensteins life and
  philosophy
• Bertrand Russell
• Objective, symbolic language of logic
• The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
• The structure of reality and language
• Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle

3
The Later Wittgenstein

• The turn away from logical positivism
• The living language of ordinary, everyday human
  usage.
• Questions for language
• How do we really use that word?
• Does it do the job?
• Does it say what is intended?
• Posthumous book Philosophical Investigations

4
The Wittgenstein-Popper Debate

• The Moral Science Club at Cambridge
• Karl Popper falsifiability and problems
• Wittgensteins response no problems, just
  puzzles
• The aftermath

5
Thornburys Assessment

• On the positive side, Wittgenstein shows us the
  importance of hermeneutics, the process of
  interpretation of words and symbols.
• On the positive side, Wittgenstein is correct
  when he says that we must carefully define words
  and pay careful attention to how we use words in
  everyday discourse.
• Wittgenstein is correct to a certain extent when
  he says that we often give meanings to words, and
  that meanings change given different contexts.

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Assessment, cont.

• However, does this necessitate the view (as
  advocated by Wittgenstein) that words in and of
  themselves are meaningless, and that the only
  meanings assigned to them are those which we
  determine? The burden of proof for this
  assertion is very great.
• Conclusion (hermeneutics) of revelation