A Study Of Wittgenstein 's Thought Of "Meaning And Usage"

The problem of meaning is the important content in Wittgenstein’s philosophy. In this paper, we’ll be focused on the theory of "Meaning as Use" in later Wittgenstein’s theory of meaning, which is based on the analysis about Frege,Russell and early Wittgenstein’s theory of meaning. This theory of meaning is intended to determine the meaning of language by the use of language instead of nomination. On one hand, this theory deepens our understanding about the problem of meaning. On the other hand, it provides us with a new way of thinking and research direction in the field of the meaning of research."Meaning as use" is to emphasize that the meaning of words or phrases is depended on the use of language. This theory of meaning, which is based on the later Wittgenstein’s "Language-Game", has two language-game’s typical features: Contextual-ism and Anti-essential-ism. On one hand, the use of language is about the use of language-game and is used in the specific life-style. Therefore, the theory of "Meaning as Use" reflects a kind of strong contextual feature that the activities of the use of language are all in a particular context. On the other hand, the style of use of language is diverse because of the characteristic of family resemblance, which is reflected in language-game. As a result, there isn’t the presence of the nature of tings but only a family resemblance in the various features of use of language.Based on the content and its characteristics of "Meaning as Use", this article further discusses the meaning’s certainty and uncertainty as well as the relationship between the meaning and the object. Firstly, the certainty of meaning is temporary, which ensures that our theoretical research and the daily life could be going on normally; and the uncertainty of meaning is permanent because of the diversity of language-game. Secondly, the meaning of language can not be explained by its own-self or its nominated object but only by the use of language. Therefore, we could own the words or objects which are self-meaningful but only the meaning of the words or objects which is given through the use of language.