wittgensteins language games

Question 1

Wittgenstein’s view on religious language

Answer 1

• suggested philosophical issues would be readily solved if language people used was more precise
• early approach to language presented it as precise but narrowly defined tool for describing the world but in Tractatus he acknowledged there were things that couldn’t be spoken of
• shows the limits of use of language but problem colours whole of religious language is that people still want to speak and hold their religious claims to supreme importance but can’t be supported with evidence
• later in his career, Wittgenstein saw the meaning of language as given by broader context of way it’s used

Question 2

Wittgenstein’s view on religious claims

Answer 2

• inappropriate to treat religious claims as claims about the world
• meaning of a statement isn’t defined by the steps you take to verify/falsify it but by its use
• meaning of language is found in the way it’s used & language is a tool for getting something done

Question 3

Wittgenstein’s analogy of builder

Answer 3

• builder calls out ‘beam’ to his assistant & hearing it, they understand what is wanted & fetches required items. this language is an activity as you shout it since you want more you aren’t describing it
• for an internalist account, this would mean that meaning resides in use not with reference to some externally existing entity. if meaning of religious claim can only be understood with how it’s used we have to pay attention

Question 4

what is a language game

Answer 4

meaning with a particular social context, each context governed by rules the same way a game (like chess) is governed by diff rules

Question 5

so what is language?

Answer 5

• can be social activities where each serve a different purpose
• chess as a language game follows its own [attern with its own meaning

Question 6

what are implications for religious language

Answer 6

• religious language is is own language gamereligious language is not a language game its a multiplicity of language games- religious language regulates believer’s life

Question 7

strength of Wittgenstein language games

Answer 7

• avoids confusion that results from mistaking what language is trying to do, particularly the mistakes of the verification/falsification approaches to religious language
• allows a variety of meaning = poems, art, emotions, ethics etc rather than expecting all language to conform to an empirical/scientific norms

Question 8

weakness of Wittgenstein’s language games

Answer 8

• discourages debate with secular thinking, if we can’t understand religious language unless we engage with it & use it according to rules of religious language this isolates religion from external criticism, whereas having to engage in critical debate with secular thinkers is arguably more likely to lead to understanding
• religious statements no longer have to be true or false, believers who assert that ‘there is a God’ don’t generally think of these statements the same way as Wittgenstein instead believe they’re making assertions on reality