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Wittgenstein, language and meaning

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For everyone

Wittgenstein argued that many problems of philosophy arise from misunderstanding language. In his first book, the Tractatus (1921), he held that a meaningful proposition is a picture of a state of affairs in the world. In the Philosophical Investigations, published after his death (1953), he criticised this view himself: the meaning of a word is its use in the language. The two periods of the same thinker are read as two distinct paths in the philosophy of language.

For specialists

According to the Tractatus the world is the totality of facts, and meaningful propositions are truth functions of elementary propositions. The propositions of logic and mathematics are tautologies that say nothing about the world. In the Philosophical Investigations the rule-following discussion argues that the correct application of a rule is fixed not by a state of an individual mind but by a shared practice. The "private language argument" that grew out of this discussion deeply influenced the philosophy of mind.

Claims

The meaning of a word is its use in the language, and uses are fixed within "language games" tied to a form of life.^[2][3]

Positions

Early Wittgenstein (Tractatus): Language is a logical picture of the world; what is said about ethics, aesthetics and metaphysics is not meaningful propositions. "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."^[1]
Late Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations): Language has no single essence; words have different uses linked by family resemblance, and a private language is not possible.^[2]

Connections

Parent

Philosophy

Builds on

Frege and the birth of modern logic

Philosophy of science

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Sources

BookWittgenstein, L.; Ogden, C. K. (trans.) (1922). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London
BookWittgenstein, L.; Anscombe, G. E. M. (trans.) (1953). Philosophische Untersuchungen / Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell, Oxford
EncyclopediaBiletzki, A.; Matar, A.Ludwig Wittgenstein. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyplato.stanford.edu archive

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APA

Athena contributors. (2026). Wittgenstein, language and meaning. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/wittgenstein/

BibTeX

@misc{athena_wittgenstein,
  title        = {Wittgenstein, language and meaning},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/wittgenstein/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 28, 2026 · Last changed: September 28, 2026 · Page history

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