Meaning And Use Of Language

Meaning is one of the most important problems of language philosophy, because it involves a funda mental problem, "what is the language". But the w ay we put this problem could make people into the trap of language what m akes philosophers try to find the es sence behind the la nguage, all this l ead to the pligh t of traditional metaphysics. Although many language philosophers build many theories of m eaning, but neither equivalent m eaning with "things" or "facts"; or equivalent to "idea"; or equivalent external behavior, do not jump out of essentialism range. Their main purpose is through in the aspect of language and non-language levels to establish a stable corresponding relation, so as to solve the problem per manently. Wittgenstein thinks that such "scientific way" lead philosophy goes to wrong direction, because the philosophers lack corresponding means and m ethods to study the issue of fact level. Any "speculative" interpretations of the concept will not let the philosopher get consistent answers, rather than into the endless debate in philosophy. Therefore, the advisable way is to return to the language of use in usua l, in a specific "language game" to understand the meaning of the language. Based on this, Later W ittgenstein proposed a famous argument, namely, "meaning is to use". This assertion is not to make a new definition of meaning, but from a new perspective to unders tand meaning. Wittgenstein thinks that philosophers did not have the ability to transcend language expression in pursuit of things(concept), they can do just by looki ng at the actual use of language situation, clarify meaning, and reduce misuse of language.Later Wittgenstein fundamentally overturns, including his early theory, the essentialism theory of language. The understanding of the meaning can only depend on the investigation of language use. Once back to the language of daily use, we will realize the meaning of complexity. In the later Wittgenstein’s view, language is not a reflection of the world, it is a communicate tool used by people. Therefore, the meaning of the lang uage is f rom all m embers agreement, people f ollow the r ules to us e the language, only involved in the specific language games can r eally understand the meaning of language. Meaning is not fixed, as the change of life form, people engaged in various language gam es which also expe riencing the process of developm ent and extinction. The meaning of the language, therefore, presents a dyna mic process. For the study of Wittgenstein’s view of m eaning is a key to understand the later W ittgenstein philosophy, many of his later im portant thoughts and statem ents, such as "language game", "family resemblance", "abide by the rules of paradox" and so on are the meaning of the concept are clo sely linked with it. More importantly, the significance of later Wittgenstein view is to subvert the unde rstanding of the trad itional philosophy, philosophy is no longer seen as a kind of th eoretical system which can explain the nature of the world, but the conceptual fram ework and pattern recognition of the world. In the late Wittgenstein’s view, thought can never beyond the language expression limit, the process of learning a language is to accept a certain way of thinking and the conceptual framework, people can only rely on a certain concept of system thinking and cognitive models. Later W ittgenstein never tr ies to establish a system of theory of meaning, he just provide a way of dealing with meaning and perspectives. Therefore, he seldom proposed systematically the theory, but through a large number of examples and metaphor to deepen understanding. If people understand the basic idea, he will avoid the mistakes of essentialism, consciously by investigating the phenomenon to understand the meaning of daily language.In this paper, these are several representative theory of meaning in the first chapter, such as the referential theory, concept theory and behavior theory. No matter what is the object of these theories, its fundamental purpose is trying to find some answers behind the language which beyond expression. This is a reflection of the essence of philosophy in language level. In the later W ittgenstein’s view, the essentialism of language makes the meaning problem get chaos. In the second ch apter, this paper analyzes the core idea of Wittgenstein’s concept of m eaning, namely, "meaning is to use". Firs t, by combing the basic background and roots of later Wittgenstein’s philosophy, clarify the importance to later W ittgenstein’s theory of m eaning; Secondly, by investigating relationship between the late Wittgenstein’s analysis of meaning and use, this help us to unders tand how Wittgenstein use the basic ide as; Finally, after reviewing the significance for later Wittgenstein view, we could find out it is really helpful for us to understand the unique value of philosophy work. W e will use a m ore systematic way to explore th e late Wittgenstein on the basic ideas of "meaning is to use" in third chapter. By combing the relationship of name, context, rules, understanding and mind with using, a more detailed analysis of the late Wittgenstein basic thinking to the problem of meaning, to clarify the complex link between meaning and use. The fourth chapter, this article tries to stand on a more macro perspective to evalu ate the effects of Wittgenstein’s meaning view to language philosophy, based on the further th inking on m eaning concept of later Wittgenstein to find out the inspiration and influence.