Is this conversation meaningful or meaningless? Think, Pair, Share Is this conversation meaningful or meaningless?

Language games and Wittgenstein

Learning Outcomes To be able to explain how language games are used be Wittgenstein to explain religious language.

Possible Conclusion to the VP and FP: VP and FP present strong challenges to religious belief. However they are not the only ways to assess R.L. For many religious believers the language used to talk about God is symbolic, mythological or different from everyday language. Thus, religious people may say that VP and FP are not relevant challenges to R.L. as the nature of R.L. is different from those spoken about in the VP and FP.

Wittgenstein and Language Games Another area you might be asked to discuss is that of ‘Language Games’. Much later in his career, years after he had influenced the Logical Positivists, Ludwig Wittgenstein changed his views on how language works. (Particularly in Tractatus). In his Philosophical Investigations (published after his death), Wittgenstein focused on the uses language can be put to. Famously, he wrote: “Don’t’ ask me for the meaning, ask for the use.” So, he was less concerned with the truth or falsity of language (contrast the Logical Positivists). For religious language, he thought that function might be more important than meaning.

Think, Pair, Share List 5 words you may use differently depending who you are speaking to....

Role play! Come up with a conversation between friends where people are using language in a way many people would not understand… Next steps: Explain in your own words whether their conversation is meaningful or meaningless in your notes.

“Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday.” Language Games Wittgenstein argued that language works through a series of ‘language games’. That is, meaning only comes out of context; we have to know what ‘game’ that our terms are participating in. He then went on to say that problems in philosophy may occur through misunderstanding that words can be used in different language games. For Wittgenstein, meaning is all about observing convention – just like in a game. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. So with religion – there might be conventional or unconventional ways to talk about God. “Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday.”

So for example... ‘God allows suffering to develop our character and we will get rewarded in heaven’ This fits into the Christian interpretation of the world but would not fit into the Hindu or atheist language games.

Complete these in your notes, use your article to help you: Does language work in a game? Can you give examples? Is religion another ‘language game’? Is Wittgenstein’s later view right: is the use of language more fundamental than meaning? Stretch yourself: D.Z Phillips response to language games.

Lebensform Wittgenstein used the term ‘Lebensform’ or ‘form of life’ to denote the context in which language might be used. Wittgenstein thought it was useful to think of language in terms of a game, which we know how to play once we understand the rules. He was not implying the language is trivial or that words are used as a way of playing tricks, but he thought that the analogy of the game would be useful in highlighting the scope and limitations of language. He uses the example of a chess piece. We might learn that a certain piece is called a ‘King’ but we will not really understand this until we have played chess and understand the significance of the king within the game. There is no point arguing about how language is used. If you want to play the language game you just have to accept the rules that have been argued by everyone else. The ‘Lebensform’ of chess player has its own rules.

Your own words Write a paragraph explaining Wittgenstein's language games in your own words. This is help your essay technique! Stretch yourself: Include a link to the previous paragraph. Where would you use this in an essay on ‘religious language is meaningful’?

Evaluation point: ‘The concept of Language games makes religious language coherent’ Answer in your notes