A Criticism of Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument

Posted by in consciousness, language, Philosophy

Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument appears in the Philosophical Investigations from around p.243 to p.315. For some good summaries/accounts on the argument or the Philosophical Investigations itself, scroll to the very bottom of this article. The so called private language argument is invoked a lot of discussions about language, particularly in trying to prove in some sense that all conscious thought (or even all of consciousness) reduces to language. The gist of the private language argument is attempting to show how all the ways language could be private do not actually work. Roughly speaking,…read more