PHIL 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Foundationalism, Behaviorism, Solipsism
17 Mar 2017
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The private language argument: after a discussion of wittgenstein"s fascinating biography, consider wittgenstein"s famous private language argument . In philosophical investigations #243, wittgenstein invites us to imagine a private language that someone might invent to record his/her. Wittgenstein has in mind a logically private language: one no other person could learn because the meaning of the words is given by reference to objects only the speaker has access to (i. e. the private linguist"s experiences and sensations). He concentrates his attention on the sensation and gives it a name (say s ), resolving to call all sensations of this kind s . He seems to have no means to check the definition, for any check he might make is as fallible as his original judgment. Wittgenstein argues that the private linguist can"t distinguish between what seems like correct usage and what is correct usage in his language.
