Different Language-Games in Wittgenstein

Abstract

Wittgenstein’s later philosophy has been almost uniformly misunderstood. We have argued for this claim in an earlier paper¹ in which we also have tried to outline a more faithful overall picture of some of the most important aspects of Wittgenstein’s mature thought. To sum up our results briefly, the later Wittgenstein did not forget, or lose interest in, “vertical” connections between language and reality as compared with “horizontal” relations between different occasions of language use. One of the main purposes of Wittgenstein’s language-games was to constitute these very vertical relationships. The main reason why Wittgenstein does not say this in so many words is merely his consistent adherence to what we have called the view of language as the universal medium.

Written jointly with Merrill B. Hintikka