SAINT
JOSEPH JESUIT SCHOLASTICATE VIETNAM PROVINCE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
Understanding
the Nature and Purpose of Language from Wittgenstein's View
A Term
Paper submitted to the Course of Philosophy of Language at Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate
presented
by
Joseph
Nguyễn Minh Đức, S.J.
supervised
by
Dr.
Remmon E. Barbaza
October, 2023
“The limits of my
language mean the limits of my world.”[i] Ludwig Wittgenstein
Abstract
Perhaps rarely do we
question the origin and purpose of language. Normally, we often understand
language as a tool that helps us communicate daily with each other. However,
the main purpose of language is to communicate, and what is the true nature of
language? If we use language to communicate, why do people sometimes
misunderstand each other? When they do not understand each other, what do they
do to overcome that situation? This article will address those issues based on
the views of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) in his work Tractatus
Logico Philosophicus.
Keywords
Language, World,
Wittgenstein.
I.
Purpose of language
When
we study language, many people agree that language is a tool for people to
communicate with each other. Indeed, we understand each other better through
communication through language. For example, when someone says something that
we hear and understand, as well as when they write words and we read and
understand the meaning of that message, it all flows from language. Of course,
it is also necessary to assume that we have learned and understood the language
well. For example, someone writes an English sentence, and because I have
learned English, I understand that sentence.
Many
people also consider language as a gift. Of course, we use this gift often in
our daily lives. It is even more important because, without language, it is
difficult for us to understand each other when communicating. It is through
language that we develop in many aspects, especially knowledge. An example is
when people invented writing around the 4th century BC. Then, people have
contributed to building and developing human civilization. It is through
language that good ideas are passed on to the next generation and thereby form
a unique culture. Therefore, language can be considered a special and unique
gift because it becomes a fundamental and decisive factor for human development
in all areas of society.
In
fact, language has many different forms, but all carry a certain socially
conventional meaning. For example, speech, writing, images, symbols, signs,
etc. are all used by humans to communicate and understand each other. However,
each form of language has different purposes and meanings. For example, symbols
are also an important form of language in our lives. For example, when
participating in traffic, we see a red light at an intersection, and that is
the sign that everyone agrees to stop moving, and when we see the green light
appear, we understand it as a sign that we are allowed to move. All of those
things are very real because they have meaning and are truths that most people in
society conventionalize and accept.
Language
is a means of thinking. With Wittgenstein, he argued that when I think in
language, I have no “meaning” in my mind other than verbal expressions. Speech
itself is a linguistic tool to express and express human thoughts. Wittgenstein
even believed that a picture is also a sign of truth; "a picture is a fact"[ii]
and “the world is the totality of facts, not of things”.[iii]
Wittgenstein's above argument may be correct because if an artist has ideas in
his mind and he realizes them through painting, then that is a very real thing.
Therefore, this world is also the sum of realized ideas.
Wittgenstein
believed that, problems related to philosophy in the phenomenal world are
solved logically and dialectically. Indeed, at the beginning of the Tractatus,
he assimilated the world with the proposition: the world is all that is the
case. At the same time, he also asserted that the subject does not belong to
the world; rather, it is the limit of the world. He sees something else, which
is ‘a sense of mystery about the world in general’. Anything that cannot be
proven to correspond to a certain observable reality, then it is something that
we cannot completely finally, he asserted ‘to imagine a language is to imagine
a form of life.’
II. Nature of language
As
for Noam Chomsky, he observes that “when we study human language, we are
approaching what some might call the ‘human essence.’”[iv] The special qualities of the mind are, as far
as we know, uniquely human and inseparable from any important phase of human
existence, individual or social. This means that it points to the cognitively
bound nature of language. Meanwhile, Gadamer first introduced this idea in the
third part of Truth and Method, in which he detailed his views on
language: “It is the medium of language alone that, related to the totality of
beings, mediates the finite, historical nature of man to himself and to the
world”[v].
With Wittgenstein, he admitted that language plays a very important and
dominant role in forming concepts when studying philosophy.
When
studying linguistic philosophy, everyone acknowledges the basic nature of
language, which always begins and is built on three basic aspects: vocabulary,
phonetics, and grammar. At the same time, language often has a structure
consisting of three elements: sign language (morphology), structural language
(syntax), and meaning language (semantics). However, using language fluently
and communicating perfectly is not easy for some people. Therefore, many times
people communicate without understanding each other, leading to
misunderstandings and conflicts. To deal with the complexity of language,
Wittgenstein proposed that we must use language logically, meaning that spoken
or written sentences must be semantically clearer and more useful.
In
Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, Wittgenstein writes: “A state of affairs
is a combination of objects.”[vi]
Indeed, he believed that the world is a combination of facts, whereas truth is
a combination of objects. World = events + events and event = objects + objects.
And they are combined together. So language comes with the world and words and
labels come with things. Wittgenstein believed that humans are oriented toward
objects (property), which contrasts with the idealism in which Russell believed
that 'nothing exists independently'.
When
discussing objects, Wittgenstein conceives that “objects are simple.”[vii]
and that, in fact, “things are independent in so far as they can occur in all
possible situations, but this form of independence is a form of connection with
states of affairs, a form of dependence.”[viii]
He believes that the basis for forming linguistic concepts is when the mind
moves into conceptual space and the conceptualization of the world. Indeed,
““if the world had no substance, then whether a proposition had sense would
depend on whether another proposition was time.”[ix]
Therefore, we see that Wittgenstein's logical system has a triadic nature:
thought-world-languages are directly related to each other. For example, if we
say ‘an orange on the table’ then it is true; but if you say "orange is comfortalbe",
this statement will be meaningless because there are many interpretations.
Thus, Wittgenstein concludes: “Language is a part of our organism and no less
complicated than it.”
In
fact, when we use language to communicate, specifically words, writing, or
symbols, they must be meaningful and understandable, not how we feel and
express them specificall vague about it with the words are poverty and lack of meaning.
Therefore, Wittgenstein believes that misunderstanding how language works will
lead to this life being full of artificiality. He explains that “the limits of
my language mean the limits of my world.”[x] Therefore,
he suggested that everyone should pay attention to the meaningless things in
themselves, and the most necessary thing in daily communication is that we use
words more accurately and clearly, and that is the way we study philosophy.
Finally,
Wittgenstein says: “My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way:
anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical when he has
used them as steps to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away
the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions,
and then he will see the world aright.”[xi]
Therefore, ‘the effort of philosophy is to eliminate oneself and liberate’.
With Wittgenstein’s final thesis in Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, he
determined the nature of language, finally finding the origin of silence. He
writes “language of being is big silent” and in the reality of our daily lives,
it is very true to say that “nature likes to hide”. According to Wittgenstein,
silence is the origin of language, and “what we cannot speak about we must pass
over in silence.”[xii]
As
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) said, the only remaining task of philosophy is the
analysis of language, and Wittgenstein said: "Philosophical criticism is
linguistic criticism." [xiii] He argues that philosophy
is the fight against the bewitchment of our intelligence by the use of
language. And that lesson is worth repeating every day, if not every hour, so
that we understand that the relationship between language and the world is not
as simple as what we encounter every day. Therefore, Wittgenstein frankly
revised the analytical perspective, breaking down language into propositions to
penetrate the nature of existence and complexity in the language. So every time
we encounter this problem, we have to “find the difference between each clause"[xiv] and we use words more accurately and
clearly to express it better.
Biography
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico
Philosophicus, Translation by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness, New York:
The Humanities Press,
Noam Chomsky, Language
and Mind, Third Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000, 88
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth
and Method, Second, Revised Edition, Translation revised by Joel
Weinsheimer and Donald G. Mars, 2004, 454
[i] Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus
Logico Philosophicus, Translation by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness,
New York: The Humanities Press, n.5.6, 115
[ii] Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus
Logico Philosophicus, Translation by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness,
New York: The Humanities Press, n.2.141, 15
[iv] Noam Chomsky, Language
and Mind, Third Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000, 88
[v] Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth
and Method Second, Revised Edition,
Translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Mars, 2004, 454
[vi] Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus
Logico Philosophicus, Translation by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness,
New York: The Humanities Press, n.2.01, 7
'/%3E%3Cpath d='M16.0001 7.9996c0 4.418-3.5815 7.9996-7.9995 7.9996S.001 12.4176.001 7.9996 3.5825 0 8.0006 0C12.4186 0 16 3.5815 16 7.9996Z' fill='url(%23paint1_radial_15251_63610)'/%3E%3Cpath d='M16.0001 7.9996c0 4.418-3.5815 7.9996-7.9995 7.9996S.001 12.4176.001 7.9996 3.5825 0 8.0006 0C12.4186 0 16 3.5815 16 7.9996Z' fill='url(%23paint2_radial_15251_63610)' fill-opacity='.5'/%3E%3Cpath d='M7.3014 3.8662a.6974.6974 0 0 1 .6974-.6977c.6742 0 1.2207.5465 1.2207 1.2206v1.7464a.101.101 0 0 0 .101.101h1.7953c.992 0 1.7232.9273 1.4917 1.892l-.4572 1.9047a2.301 2.301 0 0 1-2.2374 1.764H6.9185a.5752.5752 0 0 1-.5752-.5752V7.7384c0-.4168.097-.8278.2834-1.2005l.2856-.5712a3.6878 3.6878 0 0 0 .3893-1.6509l-.0002-.4496ZM4.367 7a.767.767 0 0 0-.7669.767v3.2598a.767.767 0 0 0 .767.767h.767a.3835.3835 0 0 0 .3835-.3835V7.3835A.3835.3835 0 0 0 5.134 7h-.767Z' fill='%23fff'/%3E%3Cdefs%3E%3CradialGradient id='paint1_radial_15251_63610' cx='0' cy='0' r='1' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse' gradientTransform='rotate(90 .0005 8) scale(7.99958)'%3E%3Cstop offset='.5618' stop-color='%230866FF' stop-opacity='0'/%3E%3Cstop offset='1' stop-color='%230866FF' stop-opacity='.1'/%3E%3C/radialGradient%3E%3CradialGradient id='paint2_radial_15251_63610' cx='0' cy='0' r='1' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse' gradientTransform='rotate(45 -4.5257 10.9237) scale(10.1818)'%3E%3Cstop offset='.3143' stop-color='%2302ADFC'/%3E%3Cstop offset='1' stop-color='%2302ADFC' stop-opacity='0'/%3E%3C/radialGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id='paint0_linear_15251_63610' x1='2.3989' y1='2.3999' x2='13.5983' y2='13.5993' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse'%3E%3Cstop stop-color='%2302ADFC'/%3E%3Cstop offset='.5' stop-color='%230866FF'/%3E%3Cstop offset='1' stop-color='%232B7EFF'/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3C/defs%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=small}
'%3E%3Cpath d='M15.9963 8c0 4.4179-3.5811 7.9993-7.9986 7.9993-4.4176 0-7.9987-3.5814-7.9987-7.9992 0-4.4179 3.5811-7.9992 7.9987-7.9992 4.4175 0 7.9986 3.5813 7.9986 7.9992Z' fill='url(%23paint0_linear_15251_63610)'/%3E%3Cpath d='M15.9973 7.9992c0 4.4178-3.5811 7.9992-7.9987 7.9992C3.5811 15.9984 0 12.417 0 7.9992S3.5811 0 7.9986 0c4.4176 0 7.9987 3.5814 7.9987 7.9992Z' fill='url(%23paint1_radial_15251_63610)'/%3E%3Cpath d='M7.9996 5.9081c-.3528-.8845-1.1936-1.507-2.1748-1.507-1.4323 0-2.4254 1.328-2.4254 2.6797 0 2.2718 2.3938 4.0094 4.0816 5.1589.3168.2157.7205.2157 1.0373 0 1.6878-1.1495 4.0815-2.8871 4.0815-5.159 0-1.3517-.993-2.6796-2.4254-2.6796-.9811 0-1.822.6225-2.1748 1.507Z' fill='%23fff'/%3E%3C/g%3E%3Cdefs%3E%3CradialGradient id='paint1_radial_15251_63610' cx='0' cy='0' r='1' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse' gradientTransform='matrix(0 7.9992 -7.99863 0 7.9986 7.9992)'%3E%3Cstop offset='.5637' stop-color='%23E11731' stop-opacity='0'/%3E%3Cstop offset='1' stop-color='%23E11731' stop-opacity='.1'/%3E%3C/radialGradient%3E%3ClinearGradient id='paint0_linear_15251_63610' x1='2.3986' y1='2.4007' x2='13.5975' y2='13.5993' gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse'%3E%3Cstop stop-color='%23FF74AE'/%3E%3Cstop offset='.5001' stop-color='%23FA2E3E'/%3E%3Cstop offset='1' stop-color='%23FF5758'/%3E%3C/linearGradient%3E%3CclipPath id='clip0_15251_63610'%3E%3Cpath fill='%23fff' d='M-.001.0009h15.9992v15.9984H-.001z'/%3E%3C/clipPath%3E%3C/defs%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=small}
