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Questions tagged [private-language]

17 questions
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Why is private language an incoherent idea?

The fact that I have no problem imagining a private language probably implies that I don't understand the notion of private language. My understanding is private language is a language understandable by only a single individual. Is it a claim…
Ahmed Abdullah
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How would Wittgenstein respond to Functionalist accounts of consciousness?

So far, I've only been able to dig up a partial footnote by Kripke in his essay "Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language" where he tantalizingly writes that "... Wittgenstein would regard his remarks on machines as applicable to 'functionalism'…
Ryder
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What exactly is a private language defined as?

I'm reading this section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_language_argument What a private language is "If someone were to behave as if they understood a language of which no one else can make sense, we might call this an example of a private…
Ameet Sharma
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Is all language meaningful?

Wittgenstein claimed that many philosophers misuse language and write nonsense. He later claimed that a private language, one that cannot in principle be understood, is impossible. Does that suggest that the language of philosophy is meaningful and…
user38026
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How does Wittgenstein think language is acquired?

Wittgenstein is critical of the 'private linguist' and his exclusive use of the ostensive definition, where the definition provided for a given word is an example or a 'pointing out' of what the word might refer to. But it would seem that the…
Mos
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Given Wittgenstein's characterisation of language as essentially public, can he characterise what form thinking takes?

According to Wittgenstein, language is an essentially public activity between minds; and language is structured by a grammar so that this communication can indeed occur. I think, the notion of language is equivalent to grammar (a structuring); as…
Mozibur Ullah
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Are there some kinds of arguments in defense of Private Language?

Could the beetle in the box not play any role in our…?Or will the similar neurological constituents and the same physical input provide some supports to the "pain",in a (Kantian) way that each person has her own sense perception but is similar to…
AnduinWilde
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Wittgenstein maintains language is public, can this be correct?

I come into the world where other beings are using language. I learn this. Those beings have come into the world where other beings are using language. They learn it. Those other beings come into the world, etc. This is not an infinite regress, as…
Mozibur Ullah
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What is the crux of Wittgenstein’s PLA?

I’m reading Appiah’s Thinking it Through and I am having a little bit of trouble understanding grasping his statement of the crux of the private language argument(s). In particular, I don't understand the "punchline" or why Wittgenstein says such…
EE18
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Does Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument (PLA) commit the fallacy of question begging?

Following up from a question I previously posted, does the following objection quoted from Solomon Radley's blog, succeed in showing that the argument begs the question? It looks like the PLA is question begging. Generally, a reductio …
Nathan Cronauer
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Wittgenstein's opinion that language must be public: How was this innovative and not already obvious?

Source: p 206, A Little History of Philosophy (2011 ed; not 2012 Reprint ed.) by Nigel Warburton PhD in Philosophy.   It may seem obvious to you that when you are in pain and you speak about it what you are doing is using words which name the…
user8572
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What are the arguments in favor of scepticism today?

It seems that today the common opinion is that Wittgenstein "killed" philosophical skepticism with his Philosophical Investigations (PI) and his private language argument. After PI, the number of skeptical philosophers decreased radically.…
Gabriel
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Does the Private Language Argument (PLA) succeed in showing that some form of public extra mental world exists?

Quoted from http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/: One might even say, solipsism is necessarily foundationless, for to make an appeal to logical rules or empirical evidence the solipsist would implicitly have to affirm the very thing that he purportedly…
Nathan Cronauer
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The private language argument and Descartes's private thoughts

In his "Thinking it Through" textbook, Appiah writes It is a big step from saying that some of our mental states are things that other people can know about, to saying, with the behaviorists, that all of them must be in this way public. Yet one of…
EE18
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Review articles on the rule-following paradox

Except for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) article on private language, I am having a hard time finding review articles (or book chapters) on the rule-following paradox. What review articles should I read? I want articles that present…
Gandam
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