Abstract
On the Association of Names with Private Sensations – A Commentary on Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument (PI 256 – 265). This commentary on PI 256 – 265, informed by Wittgenstein’s Nachlass and the recently published Skinner dictations, shows that Wittgenstein uses a particular method in these sections: He investigates what kind of meaning one might give to the parts of a philosophical sentence. Wittgenstein recommended this method already in TLP and BBB – it marks a continuity in his thought. The sentence under investigation is the following: “And now I simply associate names with sensations” (PI 2009: 256). PI 257 – 265 discuss three proposals of what it might mean to associate a name with a private sensation. PI 257 investigates the claim that the association is set up by means of inventing a name, PI 258 proposes that it consists in a private ostensive definition, and PI 262, 263 suggest that it works by (inwardly) resolving to call this like that. All of these ideas turn out to be unsatisfactory. The reason why PI 258’s private ostensive definition fails is that for a private sensation there is by definition no difference between “it is the same” and “he recognized it”. This is why one cannot talk of recognition here, and therefore the private ostensive definition is an empty ceremony. The result of PI 256 – 265 is not a proof of the impossibility of a private language, but these sections show that the meaning of “And now I simply associate names with sensations” cannot satisfactorily be explained by means of the three aforementioned proposals.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titlepages
- Titlepages
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Wittgenstein and Repetition
- Über die Assoziation von Namen mit privaten Empfindungen – ein Kommentar zu Wittgensteins Privatsprachenargument (PU 256 – 265)
- „Das Ethische ist kein Sachverhalt“
- Wahrheit in Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie
- Wittgensteins Manuskriptbände aus dem Jahr 1929
- Special Issue: 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities
- Special Issue: 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities Edited by Jasmin Trächtler
- 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities
- Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) of the Wittgenstein Nachlass
- The Copyright Status of Wittgenstein’s Works
- Wittgenstein’s Notebooks, Diaries and Diaristic Remarks
- New Philosophical Aspects and the Philological Questions Emerging by Exploring the Digital Edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
- Die Baumstruktur des Tractatus: Genesis, Lesarten, Editionen
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- John Greco: The Transmission of Knowledge.
- James C. Klagge: Tractatus in Context: The Essential Background for Appreciating Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
- Jakub Mácha, Alexander Berg (eds.): Wittgenstein and Hegel: Reevaluation of Difference.
- Bernhard Ritter: Kant and Post-Tractarian Wittgenstein: Transcendentalism, Idealism, Illusion.
- Articles
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume
Articles in the same Issue
- Titlepages
- Titlepages
- Hinweis für Leser / Note for Readers
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Wittgenstein and Repetition
- Über die Assoziation von Namen mit privaten Empfindungen – ein Kommentar zu Wittgensteins Privatsprachenargument (PU 256 – 265)
- „Das Ethische ist kein Sachverhalt“
- Wahrheit in Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie
- Wittgensteins Manuskriptbände aus dem Jahr 1929
- Special Issue: 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities
- Special Issue: 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities Edited by Jasmin Trächtler
- 70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein – History, Challenges and Possibilities
- Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) of the Wittgenstein Nachlass
- The Copyright Status of Wittgenstein’s Works
- Wittgenstein’s Notebooks, Diaries and Diaristic Remarks
- New Philosophical Aspects and the Philological Questions Emerging by Exploring the Digital Edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
- Die Baumstruktur des Tractatus: Genesis, Lesarten, Editionen
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews
- John Greco: The Transmission of Knowledge.
- James C. Klagge: Tractatus in Context: The Essential Background for Appreciating Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
- Jakub Mácha, Alexander Berg (eds.): Wittgenstein and Hegel: Reevaluation of Difference.
- Bernhard Ritter: Kant and Post-Tractarian Wittgenstein: Transcendentalism, Idealism, Illusion.
- Articles
- Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes / Authors of this Volume