Topics Philosophers

Question I was wondering whether in his writings on natural language Wittgenstein adverts to Plato's theory of forms. I'm thinking in particular of his essay on defining the word "Spiel."

Accepted:
May 28, 2010

Comments

I'm no Wittg. expert -- that said, if all you mean by 'advert' is 'refers to', then it wouldn't be at all surprising if Wittgenstein did, since (I gather) crucial aspects of Wittgenstein's theory of meaning would be critical of a competing "Platonic" theory -- ie, part of his point in introducing 'games' is to deny that there are any necessary/sufficient conditions for falling into certain categories, rather those categories are characterized by 'family resemblances' -- so what allows a particular activity to count as a 'game' is not that it displays the 'essence' of Game (participation in the Platonic Form of 'Game'), not that it satisfies a particular set of necessary and sufficient conditions, but merely that it shares an adequate number of salient characteristics with other things which count as 'games' ..... So does he explicitly refer to Plato? I don't recall -- but it would be a Platonic theory he is criticizing there ....

Question I was wondering whether in his writings on natural language Wittgenstein adverts to Plato's theory of forms. I'm thinking in particular of his essay on defining the word "Spiel." Accepted:May 28, 2010

Question I was wondering whether in his writings on natural language Wittgenstein adverts to Plato's theory of forms. I'm thinking in particular of his essay on defining the word "Spiel."

Accepted:
May 28, 2010