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Language as a Family-Resemblance Concept in Wittgenstein

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Abstract

The article begins by considering Wittgenstein’s notion of family-resemblance concepts. The article purports to defend that there is something wrong with the idea that language is a family-resemblance concept, that is, that we take behaviour as being linguistic merely in virtue of undetermined similarities with paradigmatic linguistic behaviour. In order to achieve this goal, it is first clarified in which sense so-called psychological concepts are not family-resemblance concepts. The essential link between the use of the expressions “language” and “linguistic behaviour” and the use of some expressions conveying psychological concepts, such as “saying something”, is then demonstrated.

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Notes

  1. It is interesting to realize that the expression “game” in English, but not “juego” in Spanish or “Spiel” in German, is somewhat linked to activities where rules are followed. A boy occasionally throwing a ball against a wall and catching it back is playing, but, although in Spanish and German we could say to be interested about the “juego” or “Spiel” he was playing, in English it would not be said that the boy was playing a game.

  2. See, for instance, Wittgenstein 1974, pp. 74 s, p. 141; 1958, pp. 17ss, pp. 32 s, p. 86, pp. 113–120, pp. 124 s, pp. 144 s, p. 152; 2000, p. 302.

  3. This point is exposed in Baker and Hacker 2005, pp. 222–223.

References

  • Baker, G. P., & Hacker, P. M. S. (2005). Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, volume 1 of an analytical commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, Part I: Essays. Oxford: Blackwell.

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  • Wittgenstein, L. (1958). The blue and Brown books. Oxford: Blackwell.

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  • Wittgenstein, L. (1974). Philosophical grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.

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  • Wittgenstein, L. (2000). Bergen electronic edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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  • Wittgenstein, L. (2009). Philosophical investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Lógica y Filosofía Teórica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Gustavo Fernández Balbuena, 32, 2, 28002, Madrid, Spain

    José Ruiz Fernández

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  1. José Ruiz Fernández
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Correspondence to José Ruiz Fernández.

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Ruiz Fernández, J. Language as a Family-Resemblance Concept in Wittgenstein. Philosophia 47, 1447–1455 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-018-0041-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-018-0041-3

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