Argument
Private language argument
Overview
The private language argument is a family of considerations, developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations (PI), aiming to show that a language whose expressions are, in principle, understandable by only a single individual is unintelligible. The topic is presented not as a single formal proof but a sequence of interlocking moves, examples, and reminders. The central conclusion is commonly put this way: a necessarily private language—one whose meanings are fixed by items only the speaker can access—cannot establish the standards of correct/incorrect use required for meaningful language.
Scholars distinguish Wittgenstein's target from mere ciphers or idiolects: a secret code could in principle be decoded or taught to others, whereas a private language, as defined here, is in principle unlearnable and untranslatable by anyone else. The topic has been central to late 20th-century debates on meaning, mind, rule-following, and the social character of language.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
And, since we are concerned with what is called "thought," we must pay more attention than we otherwise should do to the private as opposed to the social use of language. Language profoundly affects our thoughts, and it is this aspect of language that is of most importance to us in our present inquiry. We are almost more concerned with the internal speech that is never uttered than we are with the things said out…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Private language argument is; the author is tied to Private language argument in the knowledge graph.
Such propositions as the above are trivial, and would never be enunciated in real life except by an orator preparing the way for a piece of sophistry. They are called 'analytic' because the predicate is obtained by merely analysing the subject. Before the time of Kant it was thought that all judgements of which we could be certain _a priori_ were of this kind: that in all of them there was a predicate which was only…
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
States what Private language argument is; the author is tied to Private language argument in the knowledge graph.
It may be said to be, at once, both what the logicians call, a singular, and what they call, a common term; and to join, in its signification the seemingly opposite qualities of the most precise individuality and the most extensive generalization. This word, therefore, expressing so very abstract and metaphysical an idea, would not easily or readily occur to the first formers of language. What are called the…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
States what Private language argument is.
Philosophers who discussed Private language argument
Related ideas
- John Locke
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Philosophical Investigations
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- Bertrand Russell
- Jerry Fodor
- Saul Kripke
- Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.
Explore Private language argument in the interactive graph →