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Single Idea 18283

[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 2. Meaning as Mental ]

Full Idea

The essence of language is a picture of the essence of the world.

Gist of Idea

Language pictures the essence of the world

Source

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Remarks [1930], p.85), quoted by J. Alberto Coffa - The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap 17

Book Ref

Coffa,J.Alberto: 'The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap' [CUP 1993], p.326

A Reaction

Hence for a long time the study of language seemed to be the way to do metaphysics. Now they study mathematical logic, with the same hope.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [meanings are essentially mental events]:

2337 For Aristotle meaning and reference are linked to concepts [Aristotle, by Putnam]
7716 Words were devised as signs for inner ideas, and their basic meaning is those ideas [Locke]
7308 Words stand for the ideas in the mind of him that uses them [Locke]
6716 Language is presumably for communication, and names stand for ideas [Berkeley]
9167 Frege felt that meanings must be public, so they are abstractions rather than mental entities [Frege, by Putnam]
9583 Psychological logicians are concerned with sense of words, but mathematicians study the reference [Frege]
9584 Identity baffles psychologists, since A and B must be presented differently to identify them [Frege]
23481 Propositions assemble a world experimentally, like the model of a road accident [Wittgenstein]
18283 Language pictures the essence of the world [Wittgenstein]
23482 The 'form' of the picture is its possible combinations [Wittgenstein]
8212 Everything that is experienced in consciousness is meaning [Derrida]
19149 If we reject corresponding 'facts', we should also give up the linked idea of 'representations' [Davidson]
3450 Philosophy of language is a branch of philosophy of mind [Searle]
7013 The Picture Theory claims we can read reality from our ways of speaking about it [Heil]
7722 If meaning is mental pictures, explain "the cat (or dog!) is NOT on the mat" [Lowe]