PREVIEW-Episode 55: Wittgenstein on Language

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

• Episode: PREVIEW-Episode 55: Wittgenstein on Language
• Website: The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
• Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThePartiallyExaminedLife
• Duration: 00:32:25
• Published: 2012-05-02 22:21

On Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, Part I, sections 1-33 and 191-360 (written around 1946). What is linguistic meaning? Wittgenstein argues that it's not some mysterious entity in the mind, but that it is a public matter: you understand a word if you can use it appropriately, and you know the context in which it's appropriate to use it and how to react when you hear it in that context. W. calls such a context a "language game," and sees language as big heap of these games, spanning a wide range of human activity. With guest Philosophy Bro. Get the full discussion at partiallyexaminedlife.com.