A Study Of Anti-Essentialism In Late Wittgenstein’s Philosophy

Wittgenstein’s philosophy has been of great importance in the twentieth century,not only for advancing the linguistic turn,but also for the "significant differences" between his earlier and later periods of thought which is of interest to scholars.The greatest difference between his later Wittgenstein’s philosophy and his earlier ideas lies in the anti-essentialist perspective of his later ideas.Wittgenstein’s anti-essentialist ideas are very enlightening and have been the subject of much attention by scholars.However,although scholars have discussed Wittgenstein’s anti-essentialist ideas,they have not yet been able to look at Wittgenstein’s anti-essentialist ideas from a broader perspective.Therefore,this paper attempts to examine Wittgenstein’s anti-essentialist thought in a comprehensive manner from the perspective of the history of philosophy,as well as from the perspective of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language,philosophy of religion,and contemplation of the times.In Chapter 1,we analyzed the essence of subjective metaphysics in two dimensions,namely,synchronicity and ephemerality.The essence view of subject metaphysics is transformed from the entity metaphysics,which has transformed the dichotomy of "phenomenon and essence," "essence and non-essence," and "creator and created" into the opposition of "subject and object.The dichotomy of "subject and object" in entity metaphysics is transformed into the dichotomy of "subject and object",which forms the basic philosophical vein of object being constructed by subject.Behind the cognitive subject is a strong volitional product,an expression of will.we analyzed the tension inherent in the early Wittgenstein’s philosophy,between the logicalization of the world and the mystical realm.The world and language are isomorphic,and the logicalization of language gives the world the same logicality,so that the diversity of the world is "neutered" in language.And beyond what can be said,there is what cannot be said.In the contradiction between the two,Wittgenstein discovered the importance of "practical" activity,which opened the way for later thought.In Chapter 2,we analyzed language games and family resemblance theory.We start from the characteristics of "game" itself and introduce the basic elements of language play theory.We then discuss the family resemblance theory and clarify the relationship between the two.In Chapter 3,we analyze Philosophical disease and essentialism in terms of the "confusion of deep and surface grammar," the "monophagism of philosophical disease," and the "volitional restlessness and quiet existence of philosophy".The three sources of the emergence of Philosophical disease and essentialism are analyzed.Among them,"philosophical volitional restlessness" is the most insidious source,which directly points at the criticism of the subject’s metaphysical view of essence.In Chapter 4,we analyzed the "Disease of the Times" and "Sin",which leads from the "conflict between logic and sin" to the contradiction between God’s will,which is arbitrary,and the human will,which tries to usurp God,which is "Sin".In the "relation of the will in the context of language",we believe that Wittgenstein takes the side of God’s will and rejects the usurpation of God’s will by the human will.This basic religious idea becomes the hidden nature of the later philosophy.Finally,we analyze the relationship between Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language and his time,arguing that Wittgenstein was influenced by Spengler and that his critique of language was in fact a critique of the "Disease of the Times" of his time.Finally,we find that "Philosophical disease," "Disease of the Times," and "Sin" are all based on a critique of the metaphysics of the subject,which becomes the main axis of Wittgenstein’s later thought.