Philosophical Investigations

Rules of language

Wittgenstein was convinced that many philosophical problems are the result of philosophers failing to understand how language is actually used in the real world. For example a philosopher may ask "What is beauty?" and be convinced that there must be some essential thing which makes something beautiful. But for Wittgenstein, this is just a mistake in grammar occasioned by the form of the question "What is beauty?" As a matter of everyday experience, Wittgenstein would point out that we don't need to understand the essence of beauty to use the word properly, and in fact the search for the essence of beauty creates grammatical confusion about how the word should be used. In the end this grammatical confusion leads philosophers to say strange things which nobody else understands. Instead of searching for a mythical substrate which defines beauty, Wittgenstein suggests that we take our cues from the actual use of the word. In particular Wittgenstein asks us to look at the way in which we teach children to use a word.

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(Note: Eschewing the 'ordinary language' definition, Wittgenstein uniquely interpreted 'grammar' as similar to 'social rules'. So in Wittgenstein's use of the word, one would break the 'grammar' of the social situation of meeting Queen Elizabeth II if one turned up in jeans and t-shirt).

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