Wittgenstein’s Attempt at Explanation

The reading of Wittgenstein’s excerpts from “Philosophical Investigations” was, for the most part, a challenging one. Many of the ideas that Wittgenstein brought in were difficult to grasp, but I do applaud Wittgenstein’s attempt at explaining his complex ideas in as easy of a way as possible.

The first technique that I found that made Wittgenstein’s concepts easier to read and process was his choice of format. Wittgenstein could have written his ideas down using an essay format full of never ending paragraphs making his already tough to understand ideas even more challenging However, by breaking up his ideas into numbered sections, Wittgenstein was able to separate his ideas so that the reader does not feel overwhelmed by the information.

Secondly, Wittgenstein wrote in almost a dialogue form; constantly asking himself questions that the reader may have had about his concepts. This constant back and forth not only allowed Wittgenstein to state his ideas but also allowed him to elaborate on the more complex topics in greater detail. Without this aspect of Wittgenstein’s writing many questions that the reader may have had would most likely go unanswered and only add to the reader’s confusion.

The final device that I found helpful in Wittgenstein’s writing was his use of comparison. For example, when he compared language to games. Wittgenstein explains how games cannot be defined by one feature because not all games share one feature in common. Instead, however, all games are linked through different similarities which Wittgenstein calls a “family resemblance”. Just like a game, language also cannot be defined by one feature but is linked by family resemblances. By using this comparison Wittgenstein takes his complex concept of defining language and explains it in more familiar terms that the readers can better understand.

Even with these three helpful aspects, the topic of Wittgenstein’s writing was still not easy to fully understand. Nevertheless, if it were not previously for these explanation techniques the reading would have been unbearable.