Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who became one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. Born in Vienna, Wittgenstein studied at Cambridgewhere he learned under another famous philosopher—Bertrand Russell.
In 1922 Wittgenstein wrote his Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, a work that he believed was the “final solution” to philosophical problems. In this work Wittgenstein promoted the ‘picture theory’ of language in which words represent things according to established conventions. After writing the Tractatus, Wittgenstein taught elementary school for several years. When he returned to philosophy he rejected his views in the Tractatus including his picture theory. He asserted that usage was more important than convention. For Wittgenstein, words are like “tools” that serve many functions. He also asserted that there are no inherent meanings in words and that the meaning of a word is determined by how a person uses that word (i.e. context). Wittgenstein is famous for his idea of “language games” by which he means that people play different games with language. For example, the scientist uses the language of a scientist and the theologian uses the language of theologian. In order to understand scientists and theologians, you need to learn the words they use, and thus play their language games.
His ideas from his later period were published posthumously as the Philosophical Investigations in 1953.