Wittgenstein On The Meaning Of Words

Philosophical Investigations is later Wittgenstein's most important work,the main idea of which is 'the meaning of word is its use'.However,there seems to be a contradiction in chapter 43,which reads as follows:For a large class of cases-though not for all-in which we employ the word'meaning,it can be defined thus:the meaning of a word is its use in the language.And the meaning of a name is sometimes explained by pointing to its bearer.There is a debate among philosophers about this remark.It seems that the second paragraph of 43 offers a counterexample to the idea that 'the meaning of word is its use'and is the opposite of the main theme of Philosophical Investigations.Philosophers have read this paragraph in three different ways,which can be characterised as the 'Local Reading',the 'Global Reading' and the 'Holistic Reading'.According to the Local Reading,the second paragraph of chapter 43 is a counterexample to the idea of `the meaning of word is it use'.According to the Global Reading,the second paragraph of remark 43 is not a counterexample to the idea of'the meaning of word is it use' and we could even ignore it.According to the Holistic Reading,we can't judge whether the second paragraph of chapter 43 is a counterexample to the idea of 'the meaning of word is it use' because the meaning of a word is always not strictly fixed.We can't equate the meaning of a words with its use.If we want to explain away the seeming contradiction we should figure out the meaning of the word 'meaning'in chapter 43.In the first chapter,I will give the motive,the significance and the aim of my researching program.I will also want to picture the aspect of the works done by other researcher.In the 2,3,4 chapters,I will represent the the representative figure of the three readings mention above and the main idea of them.The chapter 5 will show the debate between them.The chapter 6 is the summary of the three readings and will offer my own standpoint concerning this debate.